. -- they beganbe to detach in the late 1970's and early 1980's. they became so large that by 2000, the median income started to decline. for the first time in american intory, it has stayed decline for more than a decade. between 1950 and 1980, productivity and wages broadly defined -- not just hourly salaries but all salaries -- but productivity and wages went up in tandem at a high rate, creating the golden era of middle-class opportunity. starting around 1980, the two began to separate. productivity continued to rise at a rapid rate, and the economy grew. while wages continue to go up but not at the same rate -- while wages continued to go up but not at the same rate as productivity. globalization began to kick in. by 2000, those forces, private sector forces, not government forces -- that is what globalization, technology, and automation art -- became so strong, that instead of productivity going up and wages wages started to decline while productivity continued to go up. even in the so-called prosperous years of the last decade, 2001 to 2007,