The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy

by Peter Temin

Overview

Why the United States has developed an economy divided between rich and poor—and how racism helped bring this about.

The United States is becoming a nation of rich and poor, with few families in the middle. In this book, MIT economist Peter Temin offers an illuminating way to look at the vanishing middle class. Temin argues that American history and politics, particularly slavery and its aftermath, play an important part in the widening gap between rich and poor. Temin employs a well-known, simple model of a dual economy to examine the dynamics of the rich/poor divide in America, and outlines ways to work toward greater equality so that America will no longer have one economy for the rich and one for the poor.

Many poorer Americans live in conditions resembling those of a developing country—substandard education, dilapidated housing, and few stable employment opportunities. And although almost half of black Americans are poor, most poor people are not black. Conservative white politicians still appeal to the racism of poor white voters to get support for policies that harm low-income people as a whole, casting recipients of social programs as the Other—black, Latino, not like "us." Politicians also use mass incarceration as a tool to keep black and Latino Americans from participating fully in society. Money goes to a vast entrenched prison system rather than to education. In the dual justice system, the rich pay fines and the poor go to jail.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262339995
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	03/10/2017
Series:	The MIT Press
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	189,196
File size:	677 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Peter Temin is Professor of Economics Emeritus at MIT. He is the coauthor of Keynes: Useful Economics for the World Economy (MIT Press) and of The Leaderless Economy.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

I An American Dual Economy 1

1 A Dual Economy 3

2 The FTE Sector 15

3 The Low-Wage Sector 27

4 Transition 41

II Politics in a Dual Economy 47

5 Race and Gender 49

6 The Investment Theory of Politics 61

7 Preferences of the Very Rich 77

8 Concepts of Government 87

III Government in a Dual Economy 99

9 Mass Incarceration 101

10 Public Education 115

11 American Cities 129

12 Personal and National Debts 137

IV Comparisons and Conclusions 145

13 Comparisons 147

14 Conclusions 153

Epilogue 161

Appendix: Models of Inequality 185

Notes 191

References 209

Index 243

What People are Saying About This

Gerald Jaynes

Arguing that the high-wage sector promotes inequality and deterioration of the middle class through its disproportionate influence on political decision making in various areas such as criminal justice, education, and social welfare policy, The Vanishing Middle Class is a significant addition to the existing literature on inequality.

Endorsement

Arguing that the high-wage sector promotes inequality and deterioration of the middle class through its disproportionate influence on political decision making in various areas such as criminal justice, education, and social welfare policy, The Vanishing Middle Class is a significant addition to the existing literature on inequality.

—Gerald Jaynes, Professor, Department of Economics & African American Studies, Yale University

From the Publisher

The Vanishing Middle Class is a book for our unsettled times. We are a divided nation economically and politically, brought on by recent changes in the demand for and supply of skill layered on top of a long history of racial politics. Part social commentary, part history, part academic inquiry, Temin's book tells us how the two parts of the modern dual economy can be glued back together.

—Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Arguing that the high-wage sector promotes inequality and deterioration of the middle class through its disproportionate influence on political decision making in various areas such as criminal justice, education, and social welfare policy, The Vanishing Middle Class is a significant addition to the existing literature on inequality.

—Gerald Jaynes, Professor, Department of Economics & African American Studies, Yale University

Claudia Goldin

The Vanishing Middle Class is a book for our unsettled times. We are a divided nation economically and politically, brought on by recent changes in the demand for and supply of skill layered on top of a long history of racial politics. Part social commentary, part history, part academic inquiry, Temin's book tells us how the two parts of the modern dual economy can be glued back together.

Editorial Reviews

There are a great many books to be read on the problem of growing inequality and the attendant social, political and economic issues that both cause it and result from it. If you had to read only one book on the growing crisis, The Vanishing Middle Class is it. Its powerful combination of race and class analysis doesn't hold back any punches in exposing the deliberate and systematic exploitation of the poor and the racialized by a minority of wealthy and mostly white elites in today's America.

—PopMatters

From the Publisher

There are a great many books to be read on the problem of growing inequality and the attendant social, political and economic issues that both cause it and result from it. If you had to read only one book on the growing crisis, The Vanishing Middle Class is it. Its powerful combination of race and class analysis doesn't hold back any punches in exposing the deliberate and systematic exploitation of the poor and the racialized by a minority of wealthy and mostly white elites in today's America.

—PopMatters

Reviews

There are a great many books to be read on the problem of growing inequality and the attendant social, political and economic issues that both cause it and result from it. If you had to read only one book on the growing crisis, The Vanishing Middle Class is it. Its powerful combination of race and class analysis doesn't hold back any punches in exposing the deliberate and systematic exploitation of the poor and the racialized by a minority of wealthy and mostly white elites in today's America.

PopMatters

The mildly cheery tone in Stephen Thorne’s performance helps the medicine go down in this astute and timely overview of why our rich and poor are so economically divided. Along with effortless-sounding enunciation and phrasing, his narration has a personality that connects with the author’s progressive ideals without discernible outrage or hectoring. The author, an MIT economist, offers accessible lessons about the public policies and economic realities that have weakened the poor and diminished their opportunities. Listing familiar factors such as vanishing factories, weakened unions, unjustifiable tax breaks for the wealthy, public service privatization, and class and racial barriers, he lays out the problems and solutions with clarity and equanimity—all of which are furthered by Thorne’s excellent reading. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2017 - AudioFile