The New Deal effective tax rates on individuals and corporations plus subsidies for public college created the greatest middle class in history. It also barred banks from loaning Wall Street money for speculative and risky adventures.

In 1980 Reagan began unraveling all of the pillars of that middle class success.

46 years later you can see the damage. Housing is unaffordable even for professional couples. Public colleges are gated to the upper classes.

There is no middle class anymore.

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Noaidi 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> There is no middle class anymore.

There is a middle class, but it is the worst place to be. The best two places to be are rich or poor. The middle class are all suckers, they are making the rich richer and are supporting the poor.

(I am poor.)

	▲	zeroonetwothree 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		The traditional economist/polisci view is that laws favor the middle class (the largest voting group) at the expense of the poor (who don’t benefit from most services) and rich (who pay most taxes). See “Director’s Law”

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lokar 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The non-college educated working class was greatly reduced (in size and wealth), but mostly by trade and automation. In its place we have a smaller white-collar (college educated) middle class.

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zeroonetwothree 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

This is very silly. College attendance is at record highs, far above 1980.

	▲	ChicagoDave 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		At what expense to college loan sufferers?