EP 416 The Rise and Fall of America’s Middle Class

 Societies have always had rich and the poor, but America gave definition and prominence to the three fifths of our countrymen who land somewhere in the middle.  The reforms that followed the Great Depression put the federal government squarely on the side of those looking to attain a piece of the American Dream.  Policies were developed to develop a new suburban America which drove our economy, politics and culture through 1968, according to David Stebenne, who teaches history and law at Ohio State university and is the author of ‘Promised Land’. While many think that the middle class ideal began to erode in the 1980’s, Professor Stebenne dates the decline to the tumultuous year of 1968.  Given our focus on social and political trends we explore the future of the middle class, which we have been told by many may elude many in the millennial and Gen X generations.  

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