@inbook{10.7758/9781610443548.5, ISBN = {9780871545145}, URL = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/9781610443548.5}, abstract = {Writing about an economy is like writing about a river. The backdrop is the motion, a constant evolution with no beginning or end. The stories mix human effort and impersonal forces, sometimes working together, sometimes in opposition.The chapters that follow trace the development of American incomes from the end of World War II through the late 1990s. During this time, our broadest economic goals have remained unchanged: a shared prosperity, the opportunity to progress over a career, the opportunity for our children to do better than we have done. In some decades, the economy has largely delivered these goals.}, author = {Nicholas Lemann}, bookauthor = {FRANK LEVY}, booktitle = {New Dollars and Dreams, The: American Incomes in the Late 1990s}, pages = {1--7}, publisher = {Russell Sage Foundation}, title = {A Half Century of Incomes}, year = {1998} }