The Riches of This Land: The Untold, True Story of America's Middle Class

Riches of This Land purports to tell the "true story" of the fall of the middle class. When the book debunks commonly held notion, it does a great job. However, when it is somewhat lacking when it purports to propose the "true explanations". The book observes that opportunities for non-college educated white men has fallen. They have taken to Trump's attacks on "others" - women, minorities, foreigners, etc. However, the author argues that the growth in job opportunities for women and minorities has helped lead to some of the greatest job booms and increase in pay for White Men. For this, he primarily relies on a single study. The explanation is that many people were not utilizing their skills to the greatest means possible. They were "held back" by their race or gender. When these barriers were removed, they were able to move into positions that they were better able to perform, and everyone did better. Alas, could it also be that there was such a demand for jobs that employers were forced to add more employees? And could be be ending up in sub-optimal positions due to pay. Plenty of people are working high paying jobs because they are high paying, even though their passion and skill may lie in other areas. Does this help society? Also, could gains due to new labor force participation be sustained? When women enter the labor force, some of their previous "homemaking" responsibilities move into the "economy", opening up new jobs. Once there is a general saturation that growth will no longer be there. 

America is often built upon the backs of newcomers. It is almost as if there is an institutional hazing. Some of these newcomers go through it and become part of the "white America". (Irish and Italians were once the lowest of low, but now are fairly indistinguishable from British.) Others, like Blacks were continually beat down, with even their meager gains retracted. 

The author also makes acknoweldges that relative perception is more important than raw economic position. The poor of today are much better off than the wealthy of a century ago. However, they still feel miserable due to their low relative position. Similarly, people with stagnating jobs feel bad because they see a lack of growth over their life. 

The author does propose a laundry list of solutions. However, the psychology of it makes things challenging. People need to feel they are moving up. They also want to feel better than "others". How do you manage both in a long-term sustainable way?