ABSTRACT
The visible ceiling spells the "end of optimism," particularly for so many middle- and lower-middle-class families forced to work two to three jobs to pay the bills. While the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer, the middle class tries to find its niche and discovers that it is off the charts. The economic upheaval facing the nation over jobs, taxes, and global change pales against the yawning earnings gap between rich and poor, a development that is way out of sync with the nation's bedrock tenet of ongoing economic progress. America has emerged as the only industrialized country where the income gap has actually grown wider, and it has grown significantly, particularly for working-class Americans, according to the Federal Reserve Bank. William Niskanen argues that the income gap has nothing to do with government policies and that the yawning gap will eventually narrow and bring about long-term growth for the economy.
