Gas, food up and earnings down

Predictably Wall Street rejoiced, sending the markets up with the news. Gas and food cost increases are bad enough but the decline on weekly earnings for 80% of the working population is embarrassing considering the recent news of corporate executives making close to 400 times the average worker.

Speaking as a capitalist and a believer in the traditional American dream, I find these trends troubling and counter to what the country used to offer. There is nothing wrong with making plenty of money, but we used to be a country that offered opportunity, balance and fairness but those ideas seem so distant and old fashioned today.