The numbers are shocking — assuming that we still have the capacity for shock — and they will form the backdrop for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

The president will declare himself a foe of “income inequality,” with good reason: As a nation, we have climbed out of the deep hole of the Great Recession, but we have not done so as a whole people.

For the first time since precise recordkeeping began a century ago, 10 percent of Americans take in more than half the country’s income.

In the last 40 years, the income of the top 1 percent of Americans has quadrupled, while incomes for everyone else have stagnated.