Today, a staggering one in three Americans—more than 105 million people—live in poverty or are teetering on the economic brink with incomes of less than twice the poverty line. New analysis by the Center for American Progress finds that if not for the dramatic rise in economic insecurity since 2000, nearly 13 million fewer Americans would be living on the edge today.
Policies based on failed theories such as trickle-down economics have played a central role in the nation’s unsustainable levels of income inequality and have contributed to widespread instability. It is long past time to put these policies, which favor the wealthy few at the expense of working families, in the rearview mirror where they belong. It is not the wealth of the rich but rather a stable and secure middle class that is the key to economic growth. A robust middle class provides the consumer base and economic demand that drive investment and productivity. What’s more, the middle class is strongly linked to economic mobility: Analyses from the Center for American Progress show that areas of the United States with larger middle classes have greater levels of economic mobility among working families.