From the NYTimes.com
ECONOMIC SCENE
America’s Sinking Middle Class
By EDUARDO PORTER
Published: September 18, 2013
In some respects, 1988 has the feel of an alien, distant era. There was no such thing as the World Wide Web then. The Soviet Union was still around; the Berlin Wall still standing. Americans elected a Republican president who would raise taxes to help tame the budget deficit.
On Tuesday, however, the Census Bureau reminded me how for most Americans 1988 still looks a lot like yesterday: last year, the typical household made $51,017, roughly the same as the typical household made a quarter of a century ago.
The statistic is staggering — hardly what one would expect from one of the richest and most technologically advanced nations on the planet.
I have written several times before about how measures of social and economic well-being in the United States have slipped compared to other advanced countries. But it is even more poignant to recognize that, in many ways, America has been standing still for a full generation.
It made me wonder what happened to progress.
Read more from the NYTimes.com >>
ECONOMIC SCENE
America’s Sinking Middle Class
By EDUARDO PORTER
Published: September 18, 2013
In some respects, 1988 has the feel of an alien, distant era. There was no such thing as the World Wide Web then. The Soviet Union was still around; the Berlin Wall still standing. Americans elected a Republican president who would raise taxes to help tame the budget deficit.
On Tuesday, however, the Census Bureau reminded me how for most Americans 1988 still looks a lot like yesterday: last year, the typical household made $51,017, roughly the same as the typical household made a quarter of a century ago.
The statistic is staggering — hardly what one would expect from one of the richest and most technologically advanced nations on the planet.
I have written several times before about how measures of social and economic well-being in the United States have slipped compared to other advanced countries. But it is even more poignant to recognize that, in many ways, America has been standing still for a full generation.
It made me wonder what happened to progress.
Read more from the NYTimes.com >>
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