[Clemenza]

Blue-Collar Middle-Class is a thing of the past

That's because the children and grnadchildren of those unionized factory workers went to college and are now (for the most part) making a good living in the white collar world. Think about it: are there any poor Italian or Polish Americans anymore? Are there any "ghetto" enclaves made up of the children of blue collar workers?

[FITZ]

Those factory workers didn't have welfare back then and were willing to pay for college for their own children ---unlike the immigrant today ---at least many of them. In the area I live, we have very high illegal immigration, a 38% dropout rate---not even high school because many drop out in middle school. The teen pregnancy rate is extremely high and the housing projects are full of illegals. A little different than the past when the immigrants had different values and strived to be educated.