The document discusses how the American middle class is disappearing based on research from economist Lester Thurow. Using data from 1967 to 1989, Thurow found the percentage of American households classified as middle class (with incomes between 75-125% of the median) declined from 28% to 23%. Factors contributing to this decline include rising unemployment, growth in low-paying service jobs, more single-parent households, and more dual-income households rising above middle class status.
by Jason Breslow and Evan Wexler, Frontline, PBS
For many middle-class families, the American Dream can feel as though it's slipping away. For others, it can seem lost for good.
Consider Terry and Tony Neumann and Claude and Jackie Stanley -- the two Milwaukee couples featured in an episode of FRONTLINE, Two American Families.
In 1992, both Tony and Claude had recently lost their manufacturing jobs. For the next 20 years, our cameras followed them and their families as they struggled to avoid poverty. When they could find work, it was often for longer hours, less pay and no benefits. Bills piled up, tensions rose and relationships became strained.
Of course, their story is far from unique. Over the last several decades, the middle class has struggled to keep pace with smaller paychecks, mounting debt and shrinking opportunities for steady work. The following eight charts offer a brief snapshot.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/two-american-families/the-state-of-americas-middle-class-in-eight-charts/
It’s fair to say that trust is the basis of all transactions, personal, legal or commercial. Without trust it isn’t an exaggeration to say that the world would descend into chaos and anarchy. Cooperation requires trust in the people you are dealing with. Without trust commercial activity would grind to a halt as contracts get flouted and international relations would deteriorate with wars becoming more frequent. Whilst the world still chugs along nicely in the spirit of trust there are cracks appearing in a number of institutions that we previously held to be reliable.
Americans with savings invested on Wall Street have had a bumpy ride over the past year. Most share prices have at best stagnated since last spring. But that ride has been considerably smoother for the power suits who run the nation’s six biggest banks. This infographic originally appeared in Too Much, the Institute for Policy Studies commentary on excess and inequality. Click to www.toomuchonline.org for more.
by Jason Breslow and Evan Wexler, Frontline, PBS
For many middle-class families, the American Dream can feel as though it's slipping away. For others, it can seem lost for good.
Consider Terry and Tony Neumann and Claude and Jackie Stanley -- the two Milwaukee couples featured in an episode of FRONTLINE, Two American Families.
In 1992, both Tony and Claude had recently lost their manufacturing jobs. For the next 20 years, our cameras followed them and their families as they struggled to avoid poverty. When they could find work, it was often for longer hours, less pay and no benefits. Bills piled up, tensions rose and relationships became strained.
Of course, their story is far from unique. Over the last several decades, the middle class has struggled to keep pace with smaller paychecks, mounting debt and shrinking opportunities for steady work. The following eight charts offer a brief snapshot.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/two-american-families/the-state-of-americas-middle-class-in-eight-charts/
It’s fair to say that trust is the basis of all transactions, personal, legal or commercial. Without trust it isn’t an exaggeration to say that the world would descend into chaos and anarchy. Cooperation requires trust in the people you are dealing with. Without trust commercial activity would grind to a halt as contracts get flouted and international relations would deteriorate with wars becoming more frequent. Whilst the world still chugs along nicely in the spirit of trust there are cracks appearing in a number of institutions that we previously held to be reliable.
Americans with savings invested on Wall Street have had a bumpy ride over the past year. Most share prices have at best stagnated since last spring. But that ride has been considerably smoother for the power suits who run the nation’s six biggest banks. This infographic originally appeared in Too Much, the Institute for Policy Studies commentary on excess and inequality. Click to www.toomuchonline.org for more.
The post release technologies of Crysis 3 (Annotated Slides) - Stewart NeedhamStewart Needham
For AAA games now there is a consumer expectation that the developer has a post release strategy. This strategy goes beyond just DLC content. Users expect to receive bug fixes, balancing updates, gamemode variations and constant tuning of the game experience. So how can you architect your game technology to facilitate all of this? Stewart explains the unique patching system developed for Crysis 3 Multiplayer which allowed the team to hot-patch pretty much any asset or data used by the game. He also details the supporting telemetry, server and testing infrastructure required to support this along with some interesting lessons learned.
The post release technologies of Crysis 3 (Annotated Slides) - Stewart NeedhamStewart Needham
For AAA games now there is a consumer expectation that the developer has a post release strategy. This strategy goes beyond just DLC content. Users expect to receive bug fixes, balancing updates, gamemode variations and constant tuning of the game experience. So how can you architect your game technology to facilitate all of this? Stewart explains the unique patching system developed for Crysis 3 Multiplayer which allowed the team to hot-patch pretty much any asset or data used by the game. He also details the supporting telemetry, server and testing infrastructure required to support this along with some interesting lessons learned.
Student name
Professor name
Course number
date
American future economic conjecture
From Piketty’s view about the American economy, I think the most likely outcome during the next 20 or 30 years will not be very good, may be massive bankruptcies, wars and revolutions. Although we had a period which called Golden Age, when the income inequality was very low, and the economic growth stayed in a high rate. However, the 1945-1975 period high-speed economic growth was not normal, it was just a historical exception. From Michael Lewis’s book Boomerang, we knew that as recently as 1980s, Ireland was one of the poorest countries in the world and it became the richest country in 2007. However, when the financial crisis occurred in 2007, the Irish economy suffered a devastating blow. The strength of Ireland had not recovered yet.
There were many serious problems we are face right now. Economic growth is usually driven by population growth and production efficiency. However, both of these conditions have slowed in the United States over the past decade. The newest data from National Center for Health Statistics shows that the number of American babies born in 2017 fell by 2% from 2016 to only 3.85 million. The birth rate has been falling for three consecutive years and reached the lowest point in the recent 30 years. The Fed raised its short-term economic growth forecast to 2.7% in March this year and 2.4% in 2019, in part because of the government's tax cuts. However, the Fed’s longer annual growth forecast is 1.8%, reflecting the resistance of the population. In addition to the reduction in labor, an aging society will delay economic growth as fewer and fewer people buy homes, cars and other expensive items. As people age and prepare for retirement, savings usually increase. Piketty’s the second fundamental law of capitalism β = s / g explain this situation. In the long run, the capital/income ratio β is related in a simple and transparent way to the savings rate s and the growth rate g. Based on the historical events, the capital/income ratio β would be high when the country faced the financial problems. For example, in 1990s, Japan faced a housing bubble, the capital/income ratio reached to 700%. Japanese people lost confident the government and saved their money as much as they could, the Japanese economy almost destroyed. The capital/income ratio for America today is about 500%, which is closed to the point in the World War I. Something must be happened so it can change this situation.
The income inequality is another serious social and economic problem. Inequality reached its lowest ebb in the United States between 1950 and 1980: the top decile of the income hierarchy claimed 30 to 35 percent of US national income. However, income inequality exploded in the United States since 1980. In the U.S. the top 10% people own about 50% of total income in 2010. The top 1% even have 20% of the total.
A detailed review of the causes and effects of income inequality. Details on how extreme it is. Citation of many authors suggesting how it came about and what to do about it.
16 contexts.orgrethinkingamericanpovertyby mark r. rank.docxfelicidaddinwoodie
16 contexts.org
rethinkingamericanpoverty
by mark r. rank
It’s a fundamental paradox: in America,
the wealthiest country on earth, one also
finds the highest rates of poverty in the
developed world. Whether we examine
children’s rates of poverty, poverty
among working age adults, poverty
within single parent families, or overall
rates of poverty, the story is much the
same—the United States has exceedingly
high levels of impoverishment.
It’s a fundamental paradox: in America,
the wealthiest country on earth, one also
finds the highest rates of poverty in the
developed world. Whether we examine
children’s rates of poverty, poverty
among working age adults, poverty
within single parent families, or overall
rates of poverty, the story is much the
same—the United States has exceedingly
high levels of impoverishment.
rethinkingamericanpoverty
by mark r. rank
17spring 2011 contexts
food stamps at some point during childhood. Life expectancy in
Harlem is shorter than in Bangladesh. The bottom 60 percent
of the American population currently holds less than 1 percent
of the financial wealth in the country. And two thirds of the
counties that black children are growing up in are considered
high poverty with respect to impoverished neighborhoods.
Although there are several possible explanations for why
these conditions exist, the argument developed here is that a
major reason has to do with how we as a society have tended
to conceptualize the issue of poverty and, based upon this
thinking, how we have acted (or better put, failed to act) toward
the issue.
The traditional manner of thinking about poverty in the
U.S. has viewed impoverishment as largely the result of individ-
ual inadequacies and failings. These shortcomings include not
working hard enough, failure to acquire sufficient skills, or just
making bad decisions. Consequently, the problem of poverty is
often seen through a lens of individual pathology. Since indi-
viduals are perceived as having brought poverty onto them-
selves, our collective and societal obligations are seen as limited.
The age-old distinction between the deserving versus the unde-
serving poor reflects this perspective—unless the working-age
poor have very good grounds for their
poverty, they’re deemed largely unde-
serving of help. Poverty is therefore
understood as primarily affecting those
who choose not to play by the rules of
the game. Ultimately, this perspective reflects and reinforces
the myths and ideals of American society: there are economic
opportunities for all, individualism and self-reliance are para-
mount, and hard work is rewarded.
This overall mindset has long influenced both the general
public’s attitudes toward the poor and much of the policy and
academic work analyzing poverty. Nevertheless, it seriously mis-
construes the true nature of poverty and fosters a lack of polit-
ical and social will to address the problem itself. Three major
chan ...
16 contexts.orgrethinkingamericanpovertyby mark r. rank.docxdrennanmicah
16 contexts.org
rethinkingamericanpoverty
by mark r. rank
It’s a fundamental paradox: in America,
the wealthiest country on earth, one also
finds the highest rates of poverty in the
developed world. Whether we examine
children’s rates of poverty, poverty
among working age adults, poverty
within single parent families, or overall
rates of poverty, the story is much the
same—the United States has exceedingly
high levels of impoverishment.
It’s a fundamental paradox: in America,
the wealthiest country on earth, one also
finds the highest rates of poverty in the
developed world. Whether we examine
children’s rates of poverty, poverty
among working age adults, poverty
within single parent families, or overall
rates of poverty, the story is much the
same—the United States has exceedingly
high levels of impoverishment.
rethinkingamericanpoverty
by mark r. rank
17spring 2011 contexts
food stamps at some point during childhood. Life expectancy in
Harlem is shorter than in Bangladesh. The bottom 60 percent
of the American population currently holds less than 1 percent
of the financial wealth in the country. And two thirds of the
counties that black children are growing up in are considered
high poverty with respect to impoverished neighborhoods.
Although there are several possible explanations for why
these conditions exist, the argument developed here is that a
major reason has to do with how we as a society have tended
to conceptualize the issue of poverty and, based upon this
thinking, how we have acted (or better put, failed to act) toward
the issue.
The traditional manner of thinking about poverty in the
U.S. has viewed impoverishment as largely the result of individ-
ual inadequacies and failings. These shortcomings include not
working hard enough, failure to acquire sufficient skills, or just
making bad decisions. Consequently, the problem of poverty is
often seen through a lens of individual pathology. Since indi-
viduals are perceived as having brought poverty onto them-
selves, our collective and societal obligations are seen as limited.
The age-old distinction between the deserving versus the unde-
serving poor reflects this perspective—unless the working-age
poor have very good grounds for their
poverty, they’re deemed largely unde-
serving of help. Poverty is therefore
understood as primarily affecting those
who choose not to play by the rules of
the game. Ultimately, this perspective reflects and reinforces
the myths and ideals of American society: there are economic
opportunities for all, individualism and self-reliance are para-
mount, and hard work is rewarded.
This overall mindset has long influenced both the general
public’s attitudes toward the poor and much of the policy and
academic work analyzing poverty. Nevertheless, it seriously mis-
construes the true nature of poverty and fosters a lack of polit-
ical and social will to address the problem itself. Three major
chan.
How to Protect Your Assets While the Majority of Americans Aren’tdailyletter
You can’t always believe the markets. Since 2009, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones have been on a tear and are, thanks to the Federal Reserve, making new record highs. Since the markets are considered an indicator of the health of the U.S. economy, one could be forgiven for thinking the economic recovery has been benefiting most Americans. It isn’t.
1NameThe Precarious State of the American DreamSince thTatianaMajor22
1
NameThe Precarious State of the American Dream
Since the perils of the Great Recession several years ago, the American economy has made a significant recovery. This can be seen in a number of ways. New jobs are being created at higher rates than have been seen in decades. The unemployment numbers are down considerably. Home values have begun to rebound. The stock market is soaring. Oil is under $50 per barrel serving as an economic boost for many Americans. In many ways, today’s economic climate is perhaps as ideal as it could be. However, the reality is that consumer confidence is still quite shaken. A recent poll conducted by the New York Times revealed that “the public is more pessimistic than it was after the 2008 financial crisis that it is possible to work hard and become rich” (Sorkin & Three-Brenan 1). This view may seem incongruent with the current economic stability; however, a careful consideration of recent history and future trends shows that this viewpoint may have significant merit. The truth is that the American Dream—for decades the one defining hope for many Americans—is on the verge of extinction.
Here the student sets up the context or setting for the argument. This discussion of the American Dream needs to be understood within current economic trends.
Here is the thesis.
The concept of the American Dream has consistently centered around the belief thateven those on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum can attain success in life through hard work. This was the result of a thriving economy, easy access to higher education, and the recognition that hard work would be rewarded. In many ways, this concept derived from the fact that many people immigrated to America seeking a better life. These immigrants worked their way up on the societal ladder over time, with each generation hoping that their children would have it better than they did. Thus, the trend of upward social mobility was born. The concept of rewarding hard work largely originated from the industrial revolution and the policies of the early automotive companies who paid their workers higher wages in order to allow them to earn enough to become customers as well. The plight of the American worker improved over time through actions of labor unions, employment laws, and a steadily increasing wage. There were many reasons to support the notion of the American Dream.
In many arguments, it is important to define key terms. Here the student defines the term “American dream.” This is important because different people may have different ideas as to what this term means.
However, the reality is that many of those reasons are no longer present in society. First, consider the role of unions in promoting American economic mobility. Labor unions served as primary catalysts in support of worker rights and were nearly single-handedly responsible for higher wages, safer working conditions, and increased benefits for American workers. However, unions have signi ...
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
"Impact of front-end architecture on development cost", Viktor TurskyiFwdays
I have heard many times that architecture is not important for the front-end. Also, many times I have seen how developers implement features on the front-end just following the standard rules for a framework and think that this is enough to successfully launch the project, and then the project fails. How to prevent this and what approach to choose? I have launched dozens of complex projects and during the talk we will analyze which approaches have worked for me and which have not.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Mission to Decommission: Importance of Decommissioning Products to Increase E...
Chapter 8 Case Study
1. CASE STUDY: Is The Middle Class Disappearing? First Year – AB Psychology 16 February 2010 Bibliography: Schaefer, R. T., & Lamm, R. P. (1992). Sociology: Fourth Edition. Is the Middle Class Disappearing? (p.229). New York: McGraw-Hill, INC. Summary: The belief that the poor can rise to middle-class status has long been central to the image of the United States as a
land of opportunity.
However, according to Lester C. Thurow, noted professor of economics and management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the American middle class is actually disappearing. Using a widely accepted definition of a middleclass household as one with an income between 75 percent and 125 percent of the nation's median household income, the range of American middle-class incomes in 1989 was $21,680 to $36,133. On the basis of this standard, about 23 percent of American households were classified middle class in 1989, as compared with 28 percent in 1967. Closer analysis by Thurow indicates that, of those who relinquished their middle-class standing, about half rose to a higher ranking in the American class system, while half dropped to a lower position. Consequently, in Thurow's view, the United States is slowly moving toward a
bipolar income distribution.
In simpler terms, a broadly based middle class is being replaced by a growing population of rich and poor Americans. Economist Ravi Batra observes that the
Unites States is fast becoming a nation of two classes, with the haves growing richer, the have-nots growing poorer, and the middle class slowly sinking into oblivion.
Thurow and a number of other scholars have identified a number of factors which contribute to the decrease in the proportion of households categorized as middle class: Unemployment. The economy of the United States has experienced serious rates of unemployment since the late 1970s. When a prime wage earner loses his or her job, a household may suddenly fall from middle-class to lower-class status. Foreign competition has been especially damaging for those heavy industries, such as steel and automobile manufacturing,, which employ a substantial number of skilled and blue-collar workers. When such industries shrink, the American middle class shrinks along with them. New growth industries and nonunion workplaces. Through the efforts of strong labor unions, workers in traditional heavy industries have generally achieved middle-class incomes. By contrast, new
high tech
industries such as microelectronics remain largely unorganized by unions, and these workers fall into the category of low-wage assemblers. Still another fast-food restaurants, has added employment opportunities, but again at the low end of the wage scale. The rise in the single-mother households. The United States has witnessed a staggering rise in the divorce rate. In 1965, there were 479,000 divorces; by 1989, there were almost 1.2 million. This increase in the divorce rate has contributed to an equally dramatic rise in the proportion of households headed by single mothers. While most divorced and separated women retain custody of their children, few are able to command incomes as high as those earned by their husbands. As a result, many households headed by single mothers lose the middle-class status that they had enjoyed before the divorce. The rise in two-income households. The discussion above has focused on factors which have led Americans to fall below their previous middle-class standing. However, the increase in households with dual wage earners has had the opposite effect. With the benefit of a second income, many of these households have been able to leave the middle class and achieve even higher incomes and status.