"The Underlying Problem that We’ve Avoided for Decades"

"But consumers no longer have the purchasing power to buy the goods and services they produce as workers; for some time now, their means haven’t kept up with what the growing economy could and should have been able to provide them.
"This crisis began decades ago when a new wave of technology—things like satellite communications, container ships, computers and eventually the Internet—made it cheaper for American employers to use low-wage labor abroad or labor-replacing software here at home than to continue paying the typical worker a middle-class wage. Even though the American economy kept growing, hourly wages flattened. The median male worker earns less today, adjusted for inflation, than he did 30 years ago.
"But for years American families kept spending as if their incomes were keeping pace with overall economic growth. And their spending fueled continued growth. How did families manage this trick?"

Robert Reich in The New York Times explains the significance of wage inequality.