[spodefly]

The unexpected resonance of the Sanders and Trump campaigns does not represent a decisive turning of American voters towards the left or towards the right. It represents a populist protest against a neoliberal economic order embraced by the establishment wings of both parties, which bestows lavish rewards upon those at the top and makes life precarious for everyone else.

That's about as good a summation as I have heard.

[nathanbedford]

I quite agree, that is an excellent summation. I think you might agree that what follows at the foot of the article, if true, is a damning summation of our current condition:

The American Dream has never been about reducing inequalities of income and wealth. It has been about enabling people to rise

Mobility, not equality, is the measure of our freedom.

The US has less mobility than most major European countries. Forty-two per cent of American men born in the bottom fifth of the income scale remain stuck there as adults (compared with 25% in Denmark and 30% in Britain). Only 8% of American men rise from the bottom fifth to the top. Studies of mobility from one generation to the next tell a similar story. Class mobility is greater in Denmark, Norway, Canada, Sweden, Germany and France than in the US. The American Dream is alive and well and living in Denmark.