"America's middle class is struggling. As recent economic data show, middle-class household incomes remain stagnant at a near-25-year low, and the share of the nation's economic gains going to the middle class has fallen to near-record lows. Meanwhile, the costs of middle-class essentials-such as child care, higher education, health care, and housing-have rapidly increased. Beyond these well-documented facts, however, another long-term trend affecting the middle class has received somewhat less attention: As income inequality has steadily grown in the United States, the actual size of America's middle class has shrunk." This article explains various effects of income inequality on middle class citizens. It discusses the decrease in middle class households over time. Due to income inequality, less than 50% of American households can actually be considered "middle class".

"Around the country, high-achieving recent high school grads have unpacked their shower caddies, flip flops, and smart phone chargers, and begun to settle in at elite colleges like Columbia, Amherst, and Stanford. On campus they're discovering countless resources, bright peers, and illustrious faculty. And for the rest of their lives, they'll enjoy the benefits of having a top university tattooed across their transcript and resume. But many high-achieving students are left out of this experience. Those excluded come disproportionately from families on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. One recent investigation reported that students from the bottom 50 percent of the income distribution comprise just 14 percent of the undergraduate population at the United States' most competitive universities." This article explains some of the reasons why lower-class students with excellent grades aren't applying to elite colleges. One reason is that students fail to learn about these colleges from their local high schools, so they depend on their families to make the best decision about college. Lower-class families look first at the admission to get into the prestigious colleges, and this immediately turns them away.