What's Killing the American Middle Class?

A new study by the Pew Research Center spurred a rash of headlines last week about "the dying middle class." But the word "dying" might be more appropriate if we were watching the regrettable but inevitable effects of natural forces at work. We're not. We're seeing the fruits of deliberate action - and sometimes of deliberate inaction - at the highest levels of power.

The great American middle was never large enough, even at its height. It always excluded too many people - sometimes, shamefully, merely for their skin color. And now, instead of growing and becoming more inclusive, it's fading away instead.

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