Enlightened public policy can moderate income inequality produced by a market system. In the last four decades the median inflation-adjusted taxable income of middle-class male workers has declined, while the amount and share of national income received by the top 1 percent of earners has soared. After reviewing studies that adjust taxable income to account for government benefits and taxes , Kleinbard notes that in recent decades most of the growth of standard of living by middle-class households has resulted in public benefits (including the value of group health insurance), lower taxes , and greater female participation in the workforce. He views that fact as a vindication of the government's ability to ameliorate the trend of rising income inequality, while noting that the social safety net for more than a decade has relied on a "fiscal policy of borrowing against the future by delivering more transfer benefits than our current level of tax collections can support.