USA Today, November 27, 2011, Sunday

USA Today

November 27, 2011, Sunday

USA Today (full article)

Good life harder to get, keep

Jefferson Cowie, a professor of labor history at Cornell University, says middle-class dreams have been ending for people across the country.

Middle-income jobs for some are simply going away. Think of people who worked as travel agents, he said, or who earned a good living at an auto-assembly plant for 30 years.

A recent USA Today analysis showed that in the 1970s, 53 percent of the nation's income went to the middle class. Last year, the number was 46 percent.

"The idea that you show up, work hard, get a little bit lucky and you'll be fine? That is over," Cowie said.