If you’re not born into the upper middle class, it’s unlikely you’ll ever make enough money to join their ranks, writes Richard V. Reeves, an economist at the left-leaning Brookings Institution.
“America is becoming a more class-stratified society, contrary to the nation's self-image as a socially dynamic meritocracy,”
he writes for Real Clear Markets. “The barriers are hardening between the upper middle class and the majority below them.”
That separation in classes is fueling political resentment, which helps to explains the popularity of “outsider” presidential candidates like Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent seeking the Democratic nomination. Both candidates are running on a platform of helping America's dying middle class.
People who are born to high-earning parents with advanced degrees are more likely to get an advanced degree and perpetuate their status in the upper fifth of society, Reeves says,
citing data from a study on poverty. People in the top quintile are more likely to surround themselves with members of their class, separating themselves further from the lower ranks of society.
Higher education and stable marriages help people stay in top 20 percent of society.
“Particularly striking is the increase in the ‘marriage gap’ between the upper middle class and the rest,” he writes. “This is an important factor in the transmission of class status to the next generation, since married couples are more likely to stay together, and stable families predict better outcomes for children.”
Former Federal Reserve Gov. Lawrence Lindsey tells Newsmax TV that the American public must fight back against the “arrogance and incompetence” of the ruling class “who think they know how to run your life better than you do.”
The current presidential campaign has been marked by anger, criticism of the political status quo and a cry in both major parties for a sea change in how politics governs the lives of average Americans.
“I think people are right to be angry because the sense that the government knows better than you do is a problem of arrogance,” Lindsey, author of "Conspiracies of the Ruling Class," tells
Newsmax TV’s "The Steve Malzberg Show."
Lindsey defined the “ruling class” as those who “think that you're not capable, that you need government to guide you … and of course the most important part is that they're the natural people to be in government,” he says.
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