The truth is, where money does and doesn’t go in the U.S. economy often results from the capriciousness of power. But acknowledging that is unpleasant. It requires naming names, aggressively forcing change, and picking a lot of fights. It requires admitting that large swaths of the country (plenty of whom voted for Trump) really are being exploited so that elites (plenty of whom voted for Clinton) can make out like bandits. It’s much more comfortable to retreat to the myth that the market “works” — that economic flourishing comes from being a “good” person or a “good” community, however one’s political tribe happens to define “good.”

If Clinton was going to bring up this statistic at all, it should’ve been to say that the U.S. economy is profoundly broken. It should’ve been to say that this injustice needs to be fought and overturned. And it should’ve been to acknowledge that calling Americans to that battle is the way to unseat Trumpism.

But then you’d have to ask why Clinton and the Democrats didn’t do that when they had the chance.