The American middle class has been slowly thinning for years, but the Great Recession is accelerating that process. Median incomes are declining and the housing market has collapsed. The consumer recovery, such as it is, appears to be driven by the affluent, not the masses. While the rich and well-educated are putting the recession behind them, the rest of America is stuck in neutral or reverse.
To assess the widening divide between the super-rich and everyone else, we invited cover story writer Don Peck and three other experts – James Fallows, Maria Kefalas, Tyler Cowen – to discuss the state of the economy and the problems facing the middle class.
ROUND 3: Can We Even Fix the Problem?
Reasons to Doubt the Middle Class Can Be Saved
Short of a major breakthrough or crisis, the country’s economic makeup is unlikely to change
JAMES FALLOWSAUG 17, 2011
Remember, America’s Poor Are Richer Than Most of the World
There may be ways to help the middle class without huge economic changes
TYLER COWENAUG 17, 2011
We Need to Change How We Talk About the Middle Class Crisis
How can the problem be solved if people don’t even agree what’s wrong?
MARIA KEFALASAUG 16, 2011
The Middle Class Is Mostly Invisible to the Elite
It’s not that the elite doesn’t care about the rest of the country–it may not even think about it
DON PECKAUG 16, 2011
ROUND 2: Is America Getting Less Mobile?
Is America Hardwired for Widening Inequality?
Why the country may not be suited to save the middle class as we know it
JAMES FALLOWSAUG 15, 2011
Decades of Low Crime Show Society Is Resilient to Decay
If the middle class is falling apart and getting poorer, why hasn’t society become more lawless?
TYLER COWENAUG 15, 2011
America Needs More College Alternatives
The country’s middle class has stagnated—but it can be revitalized
MARIA KEFALASAUG 12, 2011
The Recession Is Making It Harder to Get Into the Middle Class
The economy is experiencing a downward spiral that’s pushing people out of the middle and down the income ladder
DON PECKAUG 12, 2011
ROUND 1: How Serious Is the Crisis?
America Suffers When People Quit Moving Up
Upward mobility has drawn immigrants to the U.S. for hundreds of years, but today it doesn’t seem to be guaranteed even for those born in America
JAMES FALLOWSAUG 11, 2011
Ditch American Optimism: We Need to Get Angry About the Economy
Resiliency to adversity is great, but not indifference to the decline of the country’s middle class
MARIA KEFALASAUG 11, 2011
A Worried, Uncertain Country—but Not a Miserable One
A bad economy doesn’t ruin all of a person’s life
TYLER COWENAUG 10, 2011
Is the Middle Class Really Doomed?
The beginning of the debate about the future of the middle class
DON PECKAUG 10, 2011
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