What's the Single Best Explanation for Middle-Class Decline?

[pampango]

32. I blame poor workers - 'theirs' not 'ours' of course. Wall off 'theirs' and 'ours' will be fine.

Just kidding.

Actually, I blame 'our' rich for rigging our system to benefit themselves at the expense of the rest of us. We should not be surprised that our middle class suffers when we make our tax system extremely regressive, slash our safety net to the bone, deregulate corporate America to an absurd degree, weaken our unions and have essentially no public health care system.

FDR knew that trade was good for the middle class. That's why he lowered the high republican tariffs of the 1920's and 1930 then pushed the creation of GATT to keep tariffs low to promote trade after WWII. Of course, he also knew that even more important to a healthy middle class are high/progressive taxes, strong unions, effective corporate regulation and, though he was not able to achieve it, an effective public health care system.