ABSTRACT
The analysis of distributions of earnings for the 1967 to 1987 period revealed an overall and dramatic upward shift in the distribution for full-time earners. Approximately half of all white full-time males were upper earners; female full-time earners have been, and remain, predominantly middle earners. Public planning, at the local level, has been a primary contributor to the creation of the middle consumption package and, now, to increasingly pricing this consumption package out of the reach of middle-level earners. The growth of middle-level earners in the postwar period is the result of private, corporate planning, industry structure evolution, and the tolerance of unionization set within the context of a strong economy. The primary mechanism at the local level contributing to the creation of the middle-class consumption basket was the land-use regulatory tool of zoning, which played a major role in setting the standards for the primary consumption item of the middle-class standard of living: home ownership.
