How the American Dream Became Unaffordable.

Mangu-Ward, Katherine

THERE'S NO DENYING that a big chunk of the economy feels pretty screwed up right now for millions of working-class and middleclass Americans. There's a widespread sense that obtaining housing, education, and health care was once fairly easy and cheap but has now become mind-bogglingly complex and expensive. Addressing anxiety around the increasing elusiveness of these building blocks of an archetypical American life is at the heart of virtually all rhetoric in the 2020 election cycle, with everyone from democratic socialist presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders to nationalist conservative Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) hastening to offer funeral orations for the American Dream--while also promising to resurrect it.

What follows is a forensic investigation into how the markets for health care, higher education, and residential housing got broken. The goal is not, in this issue, to offer a comprehensive set of solutions, though you'll see hints about possible remedies throughout. Nor is it to challenge the premise that times are tough. There is much to celebrate in the modern American economy, but pointing out the ways in which things are pretty good overall doesn't go far with people who feel like they are drowning.

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