The Great Recession and America's Middle Class

Rex Nutting has a short piece over at Market Watch (see here) with some interesting data and commentary about the impact of the Great Recession on the middle class.  Much has been said about this of late, but too many people seem to accept it as a natural consequence of capitalism.  That is, they see growing income disparity as the trade-off one must make for a vibrant capitalism.  I don't buy it.  As the U. S. economy grew after WWII, the middle class shared greatly in the gains; thus it doesn't seem to me that growing income disparity is a "necessary" consequence of a vibrant capitalistic economy.

Mr. Nutting has the following graph in his post (click to enlarge).

It seems to me there are several reasons for this (none of them - in my mind - necessary or inevitable).  As Mr. Nutting puts it,

Their wages have been flat after adjusting for inflation. In the late 1960s, the 20% of families right in the middle were earning almost their full share of the pie: they had 17.5% of total income. Their share has been falling steadily ever since. Now, that 20% is earning just 14.6% of all income. Meanwhile, the top 5% captured a growing share, going from 17% in the late 1960s to 22% today.