Maybe if you took the second derivative..."The rate at which things are getting worse isn't increasing as fast."

C'mon Rob. There are two economies. One for those who are doing well, and one for those who are not. Unfortunately, those who are doing well are in a much better position to affect the economy the way they want than the other. And if they can't change things for their benefit by their economic behavior, they use their economic clout to influence them politically.

There are variations, exceptions and a lot of overlap, but in general, Republicans want an economy that favors owners rather than workers. They have managed to convince themselves that if they are doing better, then everyone must be doing better. They want lower taxes (especially for owners), lower regulations, less unions and lower worker salaries and benefits. They want a little bit of unemployment because it makes workers more docile, and a bit of inflation because it makes yesterday's loans easier to pay off in today's dollars. Anything that makes their enterprises more profitable is desirable because they will IMMEDIATELY plow those higher profits into more jobs. Yeah, right.

There's no mystery about this, people tend to want what is good for them, not for everybody. But they have a tendency to believe what is good for them must therefore be good for everyone else too. Its just human nature.

Sure, if these policies are in place, they (the well off) are better off. And when you are better off, its easy to convince yourself everybody is better off.