a return to the 19th century?

From HuffPost:

Worker Compensation Grows by Lowest Amount On Record
(AP): Employment compensation for U.S. workers has grown over the past 12 months by the lowest amount on record, reflecting the severe recession that has gripped the country.

The Labor Department said Friday that employment costs rose by 1.8 percent for the 12 months ending in June, the smallest annual gain on records that go back to 1982.

Meanwhile...

Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts
By LOUISE STORY and ERIC DASH, NYT
Published: July 30, 2009
Thousands of top traders and bankers on Wall Street were awarded huge bonuses and pay packages last year, even as their employers were battered by the financial crisis.

Most European countries were rocked by popular uprisings during the mid-19th century - mostly folks disgusted with the growing inequality 'tween rich & poor that followed the Industrial Revolution. Marx (with Engels) wrote Das Kapital.
The modern labor movement was born.

Do today's plutocrats really believe that such a popular uprising is impossible in 21st century America?
I don't.