The email sent will contain a link to this article, the article title, and an article excerpt (if available). For security reasons, your IP address will also be included in the sent email.
Published on Wednesday, September 14, 2011 by The Guardian/UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/13/american-middle-class-poverty
The heart of our political malaise is that the middle class, so long a powerhouse of US prosperity, is being crushed as never before
No one can accuse the candidates on stage at Monday's Republican debate of not discussing a broad range of topics. They talked about big issues like social security, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, energy independence, repealing healthcare reform and the need for job creation. And they talked about small issues for political point-scoring: like HPV vaccines for girls.The Consumer Hourglass Theory has been coined by Citibank to describe the new corporate strategy of marketing to high- and low-income earners but ignoring the squeezed middle. (Image: Corbis)