Bill Moyers, one of my heroes, posted a fantastic chart at his website showing precisely how in the past forty years, average regular wages in the United States have flatlined at around $30,000 (in 2008 dollars), while the incomes of the top 1% have gradually skyrocketed. (Beginning, of course, with Reagan’s historic tax cuts, and getting worse from there through Glass-Steagall and more recent Bush tax cuts and the watered down Dodd-Frank act.)

What separates this chart from others is it highlights key legislative or political moments in time and provides explanations for them if you mouse over it. It’s one of the better graphical representations of just how badly our political system has failed the 90% of this country that primarily lives on earned wages rather than equity.