Middle Class Squeeze, or What Happened to the American Dream?
In 2016, Donald Trump announced his candidacy in a meandering speech which is widely remembered for his comments about Mexican immigration. Immigratiotn was, of course, central to Trump’s 2016 success. But the theme with which he closed the speech animated his campaign and gave Trump’s candidacy its central expression. "Sadly, the American dream is dead," Trump declared as he announced his candidacy. He would “Make America Great Again!” The brash billionaire exploited underlying economic and cultural insecurities among the working and middle classes–the pervasive sense of American decline–and rode the wave to the White House. The middle class has been shrinking for decades and the trend has picked up speed in the new millennium. A 2014 Pew study, titled "America's Shrinking Middle Class: A Close look at Changes Within Metropolitan Areas," analyzed 229 U.S. metro areas and divided American adults into three categories: Low, middle, and upper income. For a hou