[ccajas]

The other side of his comment about the class divide is kind of telling though. It implies that the middle class is the most unstable of the three major economic classes in the long run. And with the current system of constraints, contents only want to settle in the top or in the bottom.

[nathanaldensr]

I have to agree. No matter what one's political leanings or who one believes is responsible, it seems true. Perhaps this is a reversion to a historical (read: modern civilization) mean? One theory is that the period immediately after World War II was an abnormal period of prosperity for the United States, seeing as how much of the developed world elsewhere was simply destroyed.