New Economy
"The best revolutions do not start at the bottom; they are the work of the upper-middle class."
In the cover story of June’s Atlantic Monthly, Matthew Stewart does a very neat job of explaining how income disparity locks class mobility, and how in America, home of the free, land of the bootstrap, class mobility is amongst the worst in the world. He makes it clear that the class divide here is already toxic, and is well on its way to becoming unbridgeable. He pleads that this reality is severely damaging our democracy.

Amongst key insights he discovers that he himself is a member of a new moneyed class, that has gone largely unnoticed. (“If you are a typical reader of The Atlantic, you may well be a member too.”) He calls them the new aristocrats because, like their Victorian counterparts, they remain totally blind to the realities of the majority. He also calls them the 9.9%, as this group, collectively, has more wealth than the top .01% and the bottom 90% combined. They live in the best neighborhoods, their kids go to the best schools, they eat the freshest food, they exercise more, they've got the best doctors, and they go on the coolest vacations. 

The other 90%, though, don't have it so good. Their kids go to worse schools, they are unhealthier, they divorce more, they die younger, they have fewer prospects and they have little hope for a better tomorrow. Trump voters didn’t only feel unheard, he suggests. They felt a burning resentment about the reality that they are an underclass, and they see no opportunity to change this truth.

He’s hopeful, though. “History shows us a number of aristocracies that have made good choices.” Transferring power back to labor from capital will take federal government action. Rebuilding our neighborhoods and schools will take state and local efforts. But the real power, he says, is in the hands of the 9.9%. “We need to peel our eyes away from the mirror of our own success and think about what we can do in our everyday lives for the people who aren’t our neighbors. We should be fighting for opportunities for other people’s children as if the future of our own children depended on it. It probably does.”
Article: The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy