As readers know, I’ve been beating the drum for some time that the “growing economy” as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a misleading number because it doesn’t really tell the depth of economic distress facing workers.

Presto, in front of my eyes the contradiction is laid bare. First, I get my little alert from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis telling me that, “Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the third quarter of 2005.” This is supposed to be good news. In the abstract, it might mean something.

But, the economy isn’t an abstraction. Because this very day Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute points out that while the GDP might be growing–meaning stuff is being made–“Employers’ wage costs grew 2.3% over the past year, the slowest growth rate on record, according to today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Factoring in the recent energy-driven increase in inflation, the real wage is down 2.3%, also the largest real loss on record for this series that began in 1981.

With hourly wages falling in real terms, the only way working families can raise their incomes is by working more hours—certainly not the path to improving living standards that we would expect in an economy posting strong productivity gains.”

So, the real story is this: workers are productive, which historically meant that those productivity gains would translate into higher wages BUT all that good stuff going on in the economy has not translated into gains for workers. Where are the gains going? Certainly, CEO paychecks continue to grow dramatically.

And the gap between rich and poor grows.