middle class

The Life in "The Simpsons" Is No Longer Attainable

In the 1990s, "The Simpsons" drew humor by putting bizarre dysfunction in the context of middle class suburban banality. Today it's the idea of homeownership paid for by a stable single income that seems outlandish.

The Real Reason the American Economy Boomed After World War II

by Jim Tankersley

Citing recent economic research, the author argues that fighting employment discrimination and ending the idea that white men have a privileged claim on good jobs will be a potent engine for economic growth if and when America recovers from the pandemic. 

Re-stabilizing the Middle Class and the Poor: Lessons from the 1930s

by David Stebenne

For a long time it seemed as though the 1930s era of high unemployment was a kind of “great exception” in American history, but now it has appeared again, suddenly and unexpectedly, just as it did in the early 1930s. 

The Myth of Middle-Class Liberalism

by David Motadel

The bourgeois are supposed to ensure open, democratic societies. In fact, they rarely have.

How Maligning Others Made the Middle Class

by Robert Wuthnow

It’s always been hard to say what’s middle class, so this is what people have done instead.

The Battle for Ohio's Middle Class

by John T. McNay

Labor's 2011 victory in Ohio offers a blueprint for the future.