EP 942 The Middle Class and Its Long Fade: How Did We Get Here?

 America built this thing we call the middle class.  It was purposeful and forward-looking public policy in the 1930’s which recognized that the strength of our democracy required a vibrant sector that could aspire to a middle -class life of owning a home, putting your children through college and retiring comfortably.  It resulted in a period our guest calls the ‘Great Compression’ (1947-1974) in which workers received a fair share of the nation’s economic prosperity.  In this timeframe, there was an expectation of job security and stability, undergirded by strong labor unions.  Much of that has changed over the last 50 years as wealth has gone to the top and left workers behind.  Much of our political unrest today (affordability) is a byproduct of those changes.  So, what happened?  Our guest, University of Texas Law School professor, A. Mechele Dickerson, lays it out, chapter and verse, in her new book “The Middle- Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream.”  It’s essential to any understanding of where we are today

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