Summary

One of the shortest chapters in his book, Sanders uses this chapter to highlight what he believes is the great moral, economic, and political issue of our time: the decline of the American middle class. Not only is the middle-class population dwindling, but living conditions of the poor and middle class are deteriorating as well. Most significantly to Sanders, this is all happening alongside a class of wealthy families whose extravagant living conditions and political station continue to improve.

Inequality is Sanders’ central focus behind the disappearance of the middle class. Wealth inequality is obvious, but Sanders finds income inequality just as detrimental to the middle and lower classes. And while these inequalities have always been present in American society, Sanders argues they began to get much worse at the beginning of the twenty-first century when “powerful special...