The steady decline of the middle class over the past four decades. It is a phenomenon often discussed and analyzed, but the new findings highlight a tipping point: Those living in middle-class households no longer make up a majority of the population.Those with at least a bachelors degree have done no worse. However, Pew writes:
Those without a bachelor’s degree tumbled down the income tiers, however. Among the various demographic groups examined, adults with no more than a high school diploma lost the most ground economically.He uses the finding to explain the Trump phenomenon, without giving emphasis to the first half of this comment:
Among white people with college degrees, he was at 23 percent and led his nearest rival by only four percentage points. Among white people without a college degree, however, his support ballooned to 41 percent.We've been led to believe educated people don't like Trump, apparently we've been lied to. As a group they don't like him as much as do the less educated, he's still in the lead with degree-holders! Amazing ... this is the real slap-your-forehead takeaway from the Balz article but obviously didn't fit the narrative he was building.
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BTW, as our society becomes increasingly technological, increasingly knowledge-and-logic-driven as opposed to skill-driven, it is no surprise the less educated are less demanded by the job market. Offshoring most routine jobs where practical, and filling many that remain with illegal immigrants, has amounted to waging economic war on our lower middle and blue collar classes. Trump gives these individuals hope.
