It’s a coincidence of timing that this issue of CityBeat contains a news article about a recent panel discussion on “the vanishing middle class.” People familiar with the topic probably already know one of the article’s salient points: Although worker productivity has increased significantly since the mid-1970s, wages for many workers have remained flat or even dropped in inflation-adjusted dollars. The people benefiting from the increased productivity are the wealthiest one-fifth of Americans, who saw their share of income increase. Most of us are working harder but we’re not reaping the fruits of our labor.  

Amid their crushing defeat last week in the health care bill debate, GOP pundits and conservative groups had at least one victory to celebrate: ACORN, the liberal community activist group, announced it was shutting its doors. While right-wingers celebrated the group's demise, others saw the announcement as the final throes of a political assassination writ large.