Reprinted from Robert Reich Blog
The great American middle class has become an anxious class -- and it's in revolt.
Before I explain how that revolt is playing out, you need to understand the sources of the anxiety.
Start with the fact that the middle class is shrinking, according to a new Pew survey.
The odds of falling into poverty are frighteningly high, especially for the majority without college degrees.
Two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Most could lose their jobs at any time.
Many are part of a burgeoning "on-demand" workforce -- employed as needed, paid whatever they can get whenever they can get it.
Yet if they don't keep up with rent or mortgage payments, or can't pay for groceries or utilities, they'll lose their footing.
The stress is taking a toll. For the first time in history, the lifespans of middle-class whites are dropping.
According to research by the recent Nobel-prize winning economist, Angus Deaton, and his co-researcher Anne Case, middle-aged white men and women in the United States have been dying earlier.
They're poisoning themselves with drugs and alcohol, or committing suicide.
The odds of being gunned down in America by a jihadist are far smaller than the odds of such self-inflicted deaths, but the recent tragedy in San Bernadino only heightens an overwhelming sense of arbitrariness and fragility.
The anxious class feels vulnerable to forces over which they have no control. Terrible things happen for no reason.
Yet government can't be counted on to protect them.
Safety nets are full of holes. Most people who lose their jobs don't even qualify for unemployment insurance.
Government won't protect their jobs from being outsourced to Asia or being taken by a worker here illegally.
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