How does inequality threaten the middle class?

The way that inequality has played out in the United States, you have seen the top pulling away from the middle and the bottom levels of income distribution. This means that some folks are getting more and more of the gains and the growth in our economy, while the middle class has seen their income stagnate. They haven't seen a lot of growth and they haven't seen a lot of gains for the efforts that they have been putting in at the workplace.

Why is a weak middle class bad for America?

The middle class is the heartbeat of our economy. The middle class is the the great U.S. consumer. If you don't have a strong middle class, you don't have a strong consumer to demand all of those goods and services that the middle class goes and creates through their jobs.

But it's deeper than that. Without a strong middle class, you don't have the political will for a strong education system, or for investments in infrastructure. The kinds of investments that benefit us all. As societies pull apart more and have more and more wealthy people that don't have that connection to the middle class, they can opt out of public services. They can send their kids to private school. Fly in their private jets. When you have a strong middle class you have a sense that we're all in this together.

What can be done to bolster the middle class?

There's not going to be one single bullet that's going to fix the problems facing America's middle class. But there's a variety of things that we need to do. It starts by making sure that we pull our economy out of the Great Recession. That we get people back to work. Without jobs you won't have a strong middle class. But then we need to go further. We need to make those kinds of investments in our communities through infrastructure, through increasing education, and by making sure that everyone benefits from economic growth.