As presidential campaigns are in full swing ahead of this year’s highly anticipated presidential election , the underrepresented American middle class faces a multitude of economic problems. The most significant,perhaps, being their stagnation in inflation-adjusted wages. A 2019 Congressional Research Service report found that inflation-adjusted wages “stagnated or fell” for those in the middle and bottom income percentiles between 1979 and 2018. Whilst Real wages from the top 90th percentile increased by approximately 38% during the same time period. This soaring income inequality as well as rising healthcare costs has resulted in many middle-class workers working longer hours to sustain themselves as well as their families, as medical bills are currently the most common cause of personal bankruptcy in modern America. As these families generally cannot afford a Medicare safety net or concierge health services as opted by the upper class, some have to “run harder to stand still.”
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