My generation's arguably most popular president, John F. Kennedy, once said, with respect to the national economy, that "a rising tide lifts all boats." In other words, everybody enjoys the fruits of an improved economy.
Well, the analogy might be a little off. It may be that a rising tide lifts all well-cared-for yachts, but it doesn't do a lot of good for the rowboat that's been careened on the beach with a hole in the hull; in fact, if you leave that boat there for the rising tide to drown, the inevitable ebb may pull it back into the sea, where it will be lost forever, or perhaps returned on a later tide as a collection of battered boards.
Or perhaps the analogy isn't off at all. An improving economy, as measured by the stock market or the unemployment figures, isn't of much use to those who don't own stocks or who don't even have jobs. Even those who have rather menial and low-paying jobs may be suffering, because part of the "improving economy" can be measured by the galloping inflation in the healthcare and college-tuition segments, thus ensuring that the less-well-to-do have less access to health care and that their children are not going to get the education they need to advance.
And, of course, there's the question of where the money goes. I've been hearing figures recently that indicate that worker productivity in the United States has increased significantly over the past few years. I've also seen figures that indicate that that productivity increase is not reflected in the average worker's paycheck. Where does that extra productivity go? The same place that two-thirds of all worker productivity has always gone — into company profits and CEO salaries (and golden parachutes).
Many Republicans, in the recent elections, hoped that the average voter would vote the economy. Of course, I've always been of the belief that voters vote the economy only when it's in the doldrums, and pay no attention to it when it's doing well. That would explain the major Democratic gains. But they would also be explained by the assumption that, to some extent, the average voter — who is also the average worker — did vote the economy — the economy of the drowned rowboat that the average Republican voter, secure on the deck of his well-cared-for yacht, doesn't see.