New at Reason: Samuel Staley on What It Means to Be Middle Class

October 12, 2010

The so-called middle class has been a target of politicians ever since it became a recognizable voting block. Unfortunately, writes Reason Foundation Director of Urban and Land Use Policy Samuel R. Staley, the term is less and less meaningful for understanding the nation's political dynamics, particularly in a nation whose core values are grounded in an organic concept of economic opportunity rather than a static concept of security. And as U.S. citizens go to the voting booths in November, Staley explains, the core political fight might not be over protecting the middle class but over which candidates are most likely to provide better opportunities for a newly defined middle class.

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