Dream Hoarders sparked a national conversation on the dangerous separation between the upper middle class and everyone else. Now in paperback and newly updated for the age of Trump, Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard Reeves is continuing to challenge the class system in America.
In America, everyone knows that the top 1 percent are the villains. The rest of us, the 99 percentwe are the good guys. Not so, argues Reeves. The real class divide is not between the upper class and the upper middle class: it is between the upper middle class and everyone else.
The separation of the upper middle class from everyone else is both economic and social, and the practice of opportunity hoardinggaining exclusive access to scarce resourcesis especially prevalent among parents who want to perpetuate privilege to the benefit of their children. While many families believe this is just good parenting, it is actually hurting others by reducing their chances of securing t