Source: Eric Levitz, New York Magazine, October 7, 2019

….After reading the Times’ report and other recent analyses of our postindustrial discontents, I’ve come to think that the decline of America’s middle class can be attributed to three distinct (though related) policy failures. Namely, the failures to sustain American labor’s bargaining power; to contain rent-seeking in the housing, health-care, and higher-education sectors; and to update (and expand) the social-welfare state for the 21st-century economy.

Related:
The Middle-Class Crunch: A Look at 4 Family Budgets
Source: Tara Siegel Bernard and Karl Russell, New York Times, October 3, 2019

Most Americans think of themselves as middle class. For many, the line between a stable life and a fragile one is thinning. ….