The Hoarding of the American Dream – The Atlantic

In a new book, a Brookings scholar argues that the upper-middle class has enriched itself and harmed economic mobility.

Source: The Hoarding of the American Dream – The Atlantic

“I am not suggesting that the top one percent should be left alone. They need to pay more tax, perhaps much more,” Reeves writes. “But if we are serious about narrowing the gap between ‘the rich’ and everybody else, we need a broader conception of what it means to be rich.”

the 20 percent are so much bigger than the one percent … dinging the top one percent won’t cut it: They are a lot richer, but a lot fewer in number. And if you are going to provide more opportunities in good neighborhoods, public schools, colleges, internship programs, and labor markets to lower-income families, it is the 20 percent that are going to have to give something up.