Increasingly, Americans believe that the middle class has been left behind — that wage growth has been disappointing, services such as health care and higher education have become more expensive, and community ties are weakening. In the past five years, this discontent has fueled the rise of populism in the US, and the pandemic has only intensified the struggles that many middle-class Americans face. What, then, should policymakers do help the middle class? Should the tax code provide greater relief? Should we provide more social insurance programs? And what, in return, should policymakers ask of the middle class. A recent online panel event explored these questions, presented here in podcast form.

Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill are both senior fellows in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and are the co-authors of the recently released “A New Contract with the Middle Class.” Reeves is also the author of “Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It,” and Sawhill is the author of several books, including “The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation.” And Michael Strain is the Arthur F. Burns Scholar and director of economic policy studies at AEI. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It),” released in February of this year.

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