middle-class families have exhausted the coping mechanisms they have used for more than three decades to get by on median wages that are barely higher than they were in 1970, adjusted for inflation. Male wages today are in fact lower than they were then; the income of a young man in his 30s is now 12 per cent below that of a man his age three decades ago. Yet for years America’s middle class has lived beyond its pay cheque. Middle-class lifestyles have flourished even though median wages have barely budged.

second coping mechanism. The typical American now works two weeks more each year than he or she did 30 years ago.

the third coping mechanism. We began to borrow, big time.

But this can no longer keep us going, either. The era of easy money is over

The anxiety gripping the American middle class is not simply a product of the current economic slowdown. The underlying problem began around 1970.