Average workers pay price for this president

years ago to almost 300 times now.

And it can’t account for the decline in starting wages of recent college graduates.

To attribute all of this to the impersonal workings of the market — and to assume it’s because most workers aren’t “worth” as much as before — is to ignore the increasing ability of moneyed interests to alter the system for their own benefit — demolishing trade unions, turning fulltime employees into contract workers and monopolizing industry.

America’s economic and political elites could have used their growing political and economic clout to help workers get ahead — through better schools and more affordable college, comprehensive job retraining, wage insurance, better public transportation and expanded unemployment insurance.

They could have pushed for universal health insurance. They could have paid for all this by accepting, even lobbying for, higher taxes on themselves. They could have sought to reduce their own political clout by demanding limits on campaign spending. But they did the reverse: They spent more and more of their ever-growing wealth and power on rigging the game to their own advantage.

As a result, trust in all the major institutions of our society has plummeted.

In 1964, more than 60 percent of Americans thought government was “run for the benefit of all the people.” Nowadays, 76 percent believe government is run “by a few big interests.”

In his first seven months as president, Trump has done nothing for American workers. In fact, his attempt to undermine the Affordable Care Act, his retreat from Labor Department regulations boosting overtime pay and his proposed tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations will make most workers worse off.

But he is in office because of workers’ anger and distrust. “The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country,” Trump said in his inaugural address. “Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs.” Tragically, Trump was right. Now all of us are paying the price.