Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class

Why a Middle Class?: Frank is an economist who writes a column for the Wall Street Journal. He has written books that entertain and inform. This book clearly falls in the latter category. It contains a series of thought provoking observations about the present state of the American middle class. He finishes the book with some ideas about what can be done to continue to support it. Those that revolve around restructuring the country's tax system are sure to make some uncomfortable. The book is well worth a read.

The size and health of its middle class used to be a matter of pride for America. If you think the state of the middle class is not important, just compare America to countries that don't have a thriving middle class. There are show more a lot of them in Africa and Latin America. show less

i couldn't really finish this because it's all stuff i've seen updated on blogs and national newspaper sites lately. glad he laid the foundation here (or you know, in semi-popular press), but it seemed superfluous reading.

Good short version of Frank's ideas about positional goods, inequality, expenditure cascases, taxes, etc.