The good news, I guess, is that the market is strong. You can’t turn on the television without seeing or hearing about Alan Greenspan and his thoughts on what we need to do to keep the economy strong.

Likewise, every presidential candidate feels compelled to demonstrate how they will be the benevolent stewards of this prosperous economy.

This all sounds nice, but since when has it become a forgone conclusion that a healthy economy means a healthy citizenry?

Unemployment is down to a thirty-year low of 4 percent, the stock market continues to climb, and inflation has been held in check. Unfortunately, these facts are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the lives of a number of Americans.

The plummeting unemployment rate is due almost entirely to the dramatic shift of jobs from higher paying manufacturing jobs into lower paying service sector jobs, often with no benefits.

The largest employer in America is the temp agency ManPower, which demonstrates there may be jobs, but there is little in the way of job security.

The rising stock market is, unfortunately, only benefiting Americans who are financially able to invest. Ameritrade may cost only eight dollars per trade, but only one third of the population has Internet access in the first place.

Looking below the numbers, it seems that our economic prosperity may not be all it is cracked up to be. In fact, there’s little to suggest that anyone below the top 20 percent is benefiting from the prosperous economy at all.

The actual take-home wages of the average worker in America has been on the decline since the mid 1960’s. During the 70’s and 80’s, economic recession easily explained away this phenomena.

Now, in a time of unprecedented economic growth, real wages continue to decrease.

The primary reason is that in a capitalist economy, growth is the only thing that matters. If a corporation makes a profit, they immediately reinvest the money in the interests of making even more profit. Sharing the profits with the workers will do little to strengthen their position in the market.

This shrewd reinvestment by already profitable corporations, coupled with clever manipulation of the Federal Reserve by Mr. Greenspan, will continue the growth of the economy.

Over the last few years Alan Greenspan has leap-frogged the president as the most influential person in America. When Greenspan announces that interest rates must be raised, it garners as much attention as a state of the union address.

At no point are the rules of the market questioned by anyone. Economists like Greenspan are elevated to the status of gods. The observations of sociologists are ignored in the light of the glistening empirical data of the economist.

As a result, most Americans fail to realize that the entire middle class is disappearing, because they’re blinded by the strong economy.

Marx predicted that capitalism’s need to continue growing at all times would be its eventual downfall. We may be nearing the end that he predicted.

Expanding markets allow productivity to increase, but markets cannot expand forever. Sooner or later there will be a Coke machine in every country of the world, and then what?

The increasingly prominent role that manipulation of the Federal Reserve plays in the world economy is evidence that the entire system is beginning to strain under the pressure of constant growth.

Our continued attention to the health of the market translates directly into continued neglect for the American worker, as well as overseas workers being exploited by American interests.

The bottom line is that maintaining a strong economy does not translate into positive rewards for most Americans, so it’s high time we stopped pretending it did.

If we are, in fact, in such a state of prosperity, it’s about time that working men and women started to see some of the rewards. Otherwise, it seems pretty obvious that all economic prosperity brings with it is continued exploitation for the majority of Americans.

Ben Godar is a senior in sociology from Ames. He is assistant arts & entertainment editor of the Daily.