Middle Class Meltdown in America
Causes, Consequences, and Remedies
- 376 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Middle Class Meltdown in America
Causes, Consequences, and Remedies
About this book
Based on income alone, nearly half of all adults in the United States can be considered "middle class," complete with the reassurance of a steady job, the ability to raise a family, and the comforts of owning a home. And yet, for many, because of structural forces reshaping the finances of the American middle class, the margin between a stable life and a fragile one is narrowing.
The new edition of Middle-Class Meltdown in America: Causes, Consequences, and Remedies tells the story of the struggling American middle class by weaving together sociological and economical research, personalized portraits and examples, and a profusion of current data illustrating significant social, economic, and political trends. The authors extend their analysis to include the COVID-19 pandemic, a focus on the effect of race and ethnicity, as well as the ever-increasing costs of housing, health care, and education.
In clear, accessible writing, the authors provide a sociological and balanced understanding of the causes and implications of increasing middle class precarity. Middle-Class Meltdown in America is particularly well-suited for courses in sociology, economics, political science, anthropology, and American Studies.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-Title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- List of Exhibits
- Preface
- A Note Regarding Classroom Use
- 1 The Illusion of Middle Class Prosperity
- 2 The Struggling Middle Class
- 3 Macroeconomics and the Income/Credit Squeeze
- 4 Robbing the Productivity Train
- 5 Where Did All that Credit Come from?
- 6 From Washington to Wall Street: Marketing the Illusion
- 7 The Great Recession of 2008–2009 and the COVID Recession of 2020–2021: The Illusion Exposed
- 8 The Consequences of Middle Class Meltdown
- 9 What Can We Do? A Manifesto for the Middle Class
- Appendix
- Index