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.
Author(s): Kevin T. Leicht, Scott T. Fitzgerald
Edition: 3
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 232
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Exhibits
Preface
A Note Regarding Classroom Use
1 The Illusion of Middle Class Prosperity
Discussions Questions
Notes
2 The Struggling Middle Class
Stories Behind the Statistics
David and Monica Tread Water
Alton and LaTonya Need a Snorkel
Our Diagnosis
Three Examples of Indebtedness: Feudal Peasants, Southern Sharecroppers, and the Twenty-First-Century American Middle Class?
Feudalism in a Contemporary Context: Tenant Farming in the Deep South
Twenty-First-Century Middle Class Meltdown— The New Indentured Servitude?
Discussion Questions
Notes
3 Macroeconomics and the Income/Credit Squeeze
Market Economies and Purchasing Power: A Digression Into Macroeconomic Theory
Enter Macroeconomics
The Revival of New Classical and Monetarist Economics
Supply-Side Economics and the Reagan Revolution
Public Policy, Purchasing Power, and the Middle Class
The Income/Credit Squeeze
Stagnant Incomes for the Middle, Rising Incomes for the Top
What Was Happening at the Top? The Captains of Industry Cash In
Lower Wages and Job Instability
Consumer Credit!
Discussion Questions for Chapter 3
Notes
4 Robbing the Productivity Train
What Is Productivity?
Profits and Reinvestment: The Other Activities That Productivity Gains Support
What Did Corporate America Do With Profits and Productivity Gains?
So Some People Got Rich! Doesn’t Everyone Own Stock These Days?
Corporate Takeovers as a Competitive Strategy
What If Wages Were Indexed to Productivity?
Discussion Questions
Notes
5 Where Did All That Credit Come From?
The Evolution of Consumer Credit
The Deregulation of the Banking Industry: A Sleepy Industry Wakes Up
A Credit Card for Everybody
Other Sources of Ready Money
Home Equity—Betting the House?
Auto Leasing—Renting the Car
Pawnshops Go Middle Class
Taking Your Pay Before You Earn It: Check Cashing, Payday Loans, and Title Loans
Car Title Loans
Rent-to-Own Or Rent-To-Drown?
And to Spread the Risk, Investors Buy Asset-Backed Securities
Are Credit Cards and Pawn Shops Substitutes for Getting Paid?
Discussion Questions
Notes
6 From Washington to Wall Street: Marketing the Illusion
The Neoconservative Persuasion
The Triumph of Supply-Side Economics
The Effects of Tax Cuts
The Reality for Everyone Else—Rising Taxes as a Percentage of Personal Income
But Wait a Minute! Didn’t the Bush Tax Cuts and the Trump 2017 Tax Cuts Do Better?
Persistent Inflation and Benefit Declines for the Middle Class
Affording the Middle Class Lifestyle
Vanishing Benefits and the Costs of Working
Retirement and the Collapse of Enron
Discussion Questions
Notes
7 The Great Recession of 2008–2009 and the COVID Recession of 2020–2021: The Illusion Exposed
The Financial Crisis: The Emperors Have No Clothes
Betting the House and Losing
Unemployment, Job Loss, and Collapsing Demand: The New Poor
Then, Just as Things Were Getting Better, We Crashed Into COVID-19
Socialism for the Banks, Capitalism for the Rest of Us: Government Policy Responses
The Response to the COVID-19 Recession of 2020— The Jury Is Still Out But There Appear to Be Some Lessons Learned
Discussion Questions
Notes
8 The Consequences of Middle Class Meltdown
“A Pox On Both Their Houses”: Examples of Middle Class Alienation From Politics and Community
Record Numbers of Bankruptcies
The Cultural Contradictions of American Politics
The Fraying of Community
Political Alienation and Anger: Hardening of Public Discourse, Cultural Fragmentation, and the Politics of Displacement
And Please! Let’s Fight About Anything But Money …
Discussion Questions
Notes
9 What Can We Do? A Manifesto for the Middle Class
Individual Responses: Avoiding the Trap of Middle Class Indebtedness
Credit Is a Good Servant But a Bad Master
Buy the Big-Ticket Items You Want, and Don’t Lease Or Rent Them
Saving Money Is a Habit That Starts Small
When the Time Comes, Buy a House You Can Afford
Collective Responses: As a Nation, We Can Do Better Than This
If We Value Families, We Should Put Our Money Where Our Mouth Is
The COVID Recession Has Made Many Rethink Their Relationship Between Work, Income, and Wealth—and the Political Class Is Noticing
Discussion Questions
Notes
Appendix
Exhibit A.9 Productivity: An Elusive Concept
References
Index
