Bill Moyers on his PBS journal had a Princeton Professor on talking about the missing class in America. Apparently, these folks are a stones throw above the poverty line and comprise around 58 million or so. So those below the poverty line combined with this missing class of working poor folks comprise a whopping 33% of the population.
I was very disappointed with this lady and felt her discussion to be exceedingly shallow. She makes education seem like the panacea for the social mobility blues these folks face. It is really more complicated than this. I live here in North Carolina and will straight out say all the folks I have seen in this supposed missing class are college educated. I recall one lady who was taking a Community school course being in her mid 50s. Well her daughter was a nurse and she was trying to transition into nursing also after getting laid off from a manufacturing firm in that area. Yes, she had her College degree from back in the day which did not do her much good. In fact all of the people in her class at the Community school were trying to get into Nursing and already had their relatively useless college degrees. Even my 2 College degrees don’t do me much good and will outright guarantee if I were not career transitioning would also be in this group. This is why I have such a deep love for this country! And fully intend to get myself out of it in 15 years!
There are deeper problems than just telling us to get a College degree and we will live the American dream. This is a poorer country and frankly an utterly bankrupt and unsustainable nation. The last thing any of us need is pretending that something we already have will solve all our problems.