US History: Chapter 7, Exercise 1 — Possible Solution
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ANSWER
Real wages rose 60 percent from 1860 to 1890, while the wealthiest 2 percent
owned over a third of national wealth and the bottom 40 percent owned none.
These measure different things: a rate of change in typical earnings against
a snapshot of how the country's total wealth was distributed. Wages can rise
in absolute terms while the gap between the wealthiest and everyone else still
widens.