The Middle Out Center
@middleoutcenter.bsky.social
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The middle class is the true engine of prosperity.
https://bio.site/MiddleOutCenter
reposted by
The Middle Out Center
The Atlantic
2 days ago
āThe iron law that said raising wages kills jobs is dead. The evidence killed it. What remains is to bury the paradigm that kept it aliveāand to rebuild the country it broke,ā Nick Hanauer and Eric Beinhocker write:
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The Economic Experiment That Upended Reality
Minimum-wage increases were expected to kill jobs. The fact that they didnāt should make us rethink a lot of assumptions.
https://bit.ly/4tVmumT
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reposted by
The Middle Out Center
Washington Monthly
6 days ago
@nickhanauer.bsky.social
and
@ericbeinhocker.bsky.social
argue that capitalism can be saved, provided thereās a radical makeover of what a capitalist economy should achieve.
@anne-s-kim.bsky.social
writes.
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The Capitalists Trying to Fix Capitalism
Can capitalism be saved? Is it worth saving? Two ambitious reformers argue yesāprovided we change what a capitalist economy should achieve.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/17/the-capitalists-trying-to-fix-capitalism/
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The economy isn't broken. It's working exactly as designed. The real question: can we design it betterāand for whom?
@nickhanauer.bsky.social
&
@ericbeinhocker.bsky.social
joined
@washingtonmonthly.bsky.social
editor
@anne-s-kim.bsky.social
to discuss š§
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The Capitalists Trying to Fix Capitalism
Can capitalism be saved? Is it worth saving? Two ambitious reformers argue yesāprovided we change what a capitalist economy should achieve.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/17/the-capitalists-trying-to-fix-capitalism/
3 days ago
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For decades, the theory was: make rich people richer and economic growth follows. But businesses hire when customers are spending, not when CEOs are flush. A strong middle class doesn't result from a healthy economy. It produces one.
4 days ago
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76% of Americans say cost of living is their top financial problem. But even working people earning $150K+ report their wages arenāt keeping pace. This isnāt a skills gap. Itās a structural one.
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āMy life is not affordable. No one caresā: 76% of Americans call the cost of living their biggest financial problem | CNN Politics
CNNās poll, conducted by SSRS, finds a surge in people naming high prices and the cost of living as the top economic problem facing their own family.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/12/politics/cost-of-living-us-financial-problem-vis
6 days ago
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$79 trillion diverted from working Americans to the top 1% since 1975. Thatās not a mystery. Thatās not āthe market.ā Thatās what happens when you spend decades writing the rules so more of the economyās gains flow upward ā then act surprised when they do.
12 days ago
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Six American billionaires got nearly a trillion dollars richer in the past 18 months. The question isnāt whether thatās a lot. It is. Itās how the same handful of people keep grabbing this much of the gains, decade after decade.
16 days ago
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$š³šµ ššæš¶š¹š¹š¶š¼š». That's how much wealth would be in the hands of the vast majority of American households today if the gains from a half-century of economic growth had been broadly shared instead of concentrated at the top. A different distribution wasn't impossible. It was a policy choice.
18 days ago
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@inetoxford.bsky.social
ED and Oxford economist
@ericbeinhocker.bsky.social
+ entrepreneur, investor and economic thinker
@nickhanauer.bsky.social
have been building a new framework for how markets workāand who they work for. Beinhocker just took it to
@HalSinger.bsky.social
's Slingshot podcast. š§µ
20 days ago
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Trickle-down economics told us that keeping wages low was good for competitiveness. Fifty years of data say otherwise. When workers earn more, they spend more. When they spend more, businesses grow. May Day is a good day to ask: why did we ever believe otherwise?
22 days ago
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New data: Americans are searching for mortgage help at rates higher than 2008. But this isnāt a repeat of the same crisis. Itās a different structural problem: In many communities, incomes havenāt kept pace with housing costs.
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Google searches for āhelp with mortgageā surge to the highest level on record
Americans arenāt missing mortgage payments en masse ā but they are increasingly worried they will.
https://nypost.com/2026/03/24/real-estate/google-searches-for-help-with-mortgage-surge-past-2008-levels/
24 days ago
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A new report from
@ips-dc.org
looks at the 20 largest low-wage employers in the U.S. Together, they employ ~6.7 million workers. šš¢šš§ of them are paying less in real terms than they did five years ago.
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Americaās 20 Largest Low-Wage Employers and the Affordability Crisis
Low wages are a key driver of the affordability crisis. These 20 firms pay poverty wages while enriching CEOs.
https://ips-dc.org/report-americas-20-largest-low-wage-employers-and-the-affordability-crisis/
26 days ago
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New UC Berkeley researchāthe most methodologically rigorous yet on California's $20 fast food minimum wageāfinds covered workers' average weekly wages rose ~11% with no significant employment reduction.
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Study: Californiaās $20 minimum wage barely raised pricesāand proved economists wrong about job loss | Fortune
āThe results are nowhere as dire as predicted,ā Berkeleyās Michael Reich told Fortune.
https://fortune.com/2026/04/15/uc-berkeley-study-california-20-dollar-minimum-wage-food-prices-employment/
about 1 month ago
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The bottom half of the world's population - about 4 billion people - is responsible for just 10% of global carbon emissions. Yet when climate change drives up food prices, floods farmland, and disrupts local economies, those same 4 billion people absorb 74% of the damage.
about 1 month ago
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Since 1975, $79T in wealth shifted upwardāaway from the bottom 90% of Americans toward the top 1%. The result: an economy that's smaller and less productive, innovative AND competitive than it would be if prosperity had stayed broad. Trickle-down didn't just fail workers. It failed the economy.
about 1 month ago
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Arizona, Florida, Missouri, and Nebraska nearly doubled their minimum wages over the past decade. These are not blue-state policy experimentsāthey're red & purple states where voters chose higher wages directly through ballot initiatives.
about 1 month ago
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Average median pay at America's 20 largest low-wage employers: $29,087. That's below the income threshold to qualify for Medicaid ... and at least 16 U.S. billionaires owe their wealth to these same firms.
ips-dc.org/report-ameri...
about 2 months ago
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Trump's 2025 tax bill, in plain terms: āø Bottom 90%: pay $13,600 more on average. āø Top 10%: see income go up. That $13,600 is two months of income for the median household. Goneāto higher-cost healthcare, utilities and insurance.
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Report on Trumpās economic policy, one year in
Economic actions by Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have threatened the healthcare of tens of millions; widened economic inequality and ballooned the deficit by showering tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations.
https://americansfortaxfairness.org/trumps-terrible-2025/
2 months ago
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Cattle ranchers are getting paid less. Workers at the worldās largest meatpacking company are on strike after being offered a 2% raiseābelow CO's inflation rate. Ground beef has doubled in price. JBS just went public at a $17B valuation. Someoneās doing great. It isnāt the ranchers or the workers.
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Thousands of workers strike at one of the largest meatpacking plants in the US
Thousands of workers for JBS have gone on strike. Itās the first strike at a U.S. slaughterhouse since workers walked out at a Hormel plant in Minnesota in 1985
https://apnews.com/article/meatpacking-plant-strike-jbs-greeley-colorado-02e9d57762af09a609b34d8e577f0c37
2 months ago
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2011: "Nobody owns 1,000 homes, that would be insane" 2021: Private equity owns 446,000 homes They didn't build them. They didn't improve them. They just had enough money to outbid you - then turn around and charge you rent.
2 months ago
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Trumpās 2025 tax bill: Bottom 90% ā pay $13,600 more Top 10% ā get richer For the typical household, thatās about 2 months of income gone. Not the market. Policy choices. Higher healthcare. Higher utilities. Higher insurance. Your bills go up so their taxes can go down.
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TRUMPāS TERRIBLE 2025 - Americans For Tax Fairness
There have been so many economic harms caused by Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress over the course of his first year back in power.
https://americansfortaxfairness.org/trumps-terrible-2025/
2 months ago
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3,000 billionaires added $2.5 trillion to their wealth last year. That's the same as *everything* owned by the poorest 3.8 billion people on Earth. That's not a typo.
2 months ago
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$35B in clean energy projects canceled in 2025; 170K jobs lost. Tax credits killed, federal funding pulled, offshore wind paused. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry got $4B MORE in subsidies. "Energy dominance" apparently means billionaires get handouts while working families lose.
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The United States sacrificed $35 billion in clean energy projects last year
Trump's policies led to canceled investments and tens of thousands fewer jobs, a new report indicates.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/united-states-trump-canceled-clean-energy-projects-billions-investment-job-losses/
2 months ago
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Friday's jobs reportā92,000 jobs lost in Februaryāis being called "a shock" by some economists and analysts. But for working people, the labor market has been soft for a while. The U.S. economy has lost jobs on net since April 2025.
buff.ly/CmX61wp
3 months ago
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As America turns 250, here's what we need to face: the American Dream has been breaking down for 50 years. For the first time ever, younger generations will earn less than their parents. This is the result of decades of rigged policy choices. š§µ
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America marks its 250th birthday with a fading dream | Fortune
There is no other country that has quite the equivalent of the American Dream. It's worth fighting for.
https://fortune.com/2026/02/08/what-is-the-american-dream-is-it-still-possible-250th-birthday/
3 months ago
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Funny how we'll debate poverty solutions until we're blue in the face, but suggesting we address extreme wealth inequality? Suddenly thatās āgoing too far.ā
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No, objecting to the enormous wealth of billionaires is not begrudgery
Why do we only talk about alleviating poverty, but not controlling runaway wealth?
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/01/30/no-objecting-to-the-enormous-wealth-of-billionaires-is-not-begrudgery/
3 months ago
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Trump just became the biggest union buster in American history. He stripped collective bargaining rights from over 1 MILLION federal workersāthe people who run Social Security, veterans services, food safety inspections, disaster response.
3 months ago
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Everyone's talking about how unaffordable life has become. Here's something important that gets lost in that conversation: affordability isn't just about prices. It's a race between what things cost and what you earn. And a new EPI report shows Trump is making us lose on both sides.
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47 ways Trump has made life less affordable in the last year
In the first year of his second term, President Trump has actively made life less affordable for working people. Affordability has two sidesāprices and pay. While public debate fixates on risingā¦
https://epi.org/316270
3 months ago
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Trump's budget is the largest upward wealth transfer in U.S. history. The bottom 40% lose income while top 0.1% get windfalls. It slashes Medicaid, ACA, & food aid to fund billionaire tax cuts. This isn't fiscal policyāit's systematic looting disguised as governance.
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We Have to Stop the Greatest Robbery in U.S. History
If youāre fed up with being robbed by Trump and the billionaire class, itās time to do something about it.
https://zeteo.com/p/trump-robbery-285-days-to-stop
3 months ago
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Your grocery bill didn't go up 30% since 2020 because you started buying fancier cheese. A typical family of four now spends over $1,000/month at the store. This is what happens when we let corporations set the rules.
3 months ago
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"The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor." When the rules squeeze workers, workers organizeābecause the economy only grows when paychecks grow.
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US Union Membership Actually Held Steady in 2025
Overall union density in the US ticked up slightly last year to 10%. This figure doesnāt account for Donald Trump's executive order last March that commanded agencies to ignore contracts andā¦
https://jacobin.com/2026/02/labor-union-density-membership-trump
3 months ago
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The stock market is up. Corporate profits are strong. And 108,000 people just lost their jobs in January aloneāthe worst start to a year since 2009. Maybe it's time to ask: when we say "the economy is doing well," *who* exactly are we talking about?
3 months ago
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Trickle-down economics says: āGive the rich more, and hope they share.ā [Spoiler: THEY DON'T] Middle-out economics says: āBuild from the middle, and everyone rises.ā Itās not just fairerāitās smarter. The path to a strong economy isnāt paved with tax cuts for billionaires.
3 months ago
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A reminder to us all that šš«š®š¦š©'š¬ š©šš¬š¬šš šš®šš šš š¢š¬ šš”š š„šš«š šš¬š š®š©š°šš«š š°ššš„šš” šš«šš§š¬ššš« š¢š§ š.š. š”š¢š¬ššØš«š². The bottom 40% lose income while top 0.1% get windfalls. It slashes Medicaid, ACA & food aid to fund billionaire tax cuts. This isn't fiscal policyāit's systematic looting disguised as governance.
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We Have 285 Days to Stop the Greatest Robbery in US History
If youāre fed up with being robbed by Trump and the billionaire class, itās time to do something about it.
https://zeteo.com/p/trump-robbery-285-days-to-stop
3 months ago
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A recent NYT/Siena poll reveals the depth of middle-class collapse in America. The data isn't just badāit's a systematic validation of what middle-out economics has been arguing about 50 years of trickle-down policy. š§µ
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Voters See a Middle-Class Lifestyle as Drifting Out of Reach, Poll Finds
Concerns about the affordability of education, housing, health care, having a family and retirement are driving economic anxieties, a New York Times/Siena poll found.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/us/politics/affordability-poll.html
4 months ago
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𦷠The Tooth Fairy cut her per-tooth rate from $5.84 to $5.01āa 14% drop in 1 yrā because apparently the vibes of trickle-down economics have penetrated even the magical realm. When a fairy w/ infinite resources is like "sorry kiddo, times are tough," you know wealth isn't trickling anywhere but up.
4 months ago
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Prosperity grows from the middle out. A large and prosperous middle class is the primary cause of economic growth, not its consequence.
4 months ago
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Every narrative that erases union leadership is telling you worker power doesnāt matter. Donāt believe it. When you organize your workplace, youāre not just improving conditionsāyouāre building the infrastructure that makes resistance possible when it counts. ā
4 months ago
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A 21-year-old making 3x minimum wage still can't afford rent alone. An engineer making $160K struggles more than his parents did. 10% of people making >$200K can't afford retirement. This is what 50 years of trickle-down built. š§µ
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Voters See a Middle-Class Lifestyle as Drifting Out of Reach, Poll Finds
Concerns about the affordability of education, housing, health care, having a family and retirement are driving economic anxieties, a New York Times/Siena poll found.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/us/politics/affordability-poll.html
4 months ago
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Wages: ā 10% Housing: ā 300% Healthcare: Bankruptcies Childcare > College "Why aren't American workers happy about the economy?" Maybe because percentages don't pay rent and essential markets are designed to extract maximum profit from those who can least afford it.
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The No. 1 cause of Americaās affordability problem just got worse
Americaās cost-of-living problem is simple math: Inflation spiked several years ago and paychecks havenāt had enough time to catch up.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/16/economy/affordability-wage-growth-inflation
4 months ago
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ā¬ļø ā¬ļø ā¬ļø
add a skeleton here at some point
4 months ago
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Recent research shows that the Supreme Court rules for the wealthy 3 out of 4 times. Your paycheck should be double what it is. Housing should be affordable. Courts should be fair. None of this is an accident. The system really šŖš“ designed to favor wealth.
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Supreme Court Increasingly Favors the Rich, Economists Say
A new study found that the courtās Republican appointees voted for the wealthier side in cases 70 percent of the time in 2022, up from 45 percent in 1953.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/us/politics/supreme-court-study-rich-poor.html
4 months ago
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"The abominations of capital are not glitches. They are the system working as designed." Every person sleeping outside while empty luxury apts exist. Every worker w/ multiple jobs who can't afford rent. Every medical bankruptcy. These things are not accidents.
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/abominatio...
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Abominations of Capital
Democracy is simply not possible in the presence of the level of wealth inequality that America now has. It is not possible.
https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/abominations-of-capital
4 months ago
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"Tax the billionaires" accepts that markets naturally create billionaires. "Predistribution" asks: WHY are we designing markets that create billionaires through exploitation in the first place? The framework: Pay working people fairly *from the start.* (via
@rooseveltinstitute.org
)
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The Predistribution Solution
Instead of letting billionaires extract all the wealth and then arguing about taxing them, what if we just paid workers fairly in the first place?
https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/the-predistribution-solution/
4 months ago
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Working peoplesā share of U.S. income just hit an all-time lowālower than any point since we started measuring in 1947. Workers are producing more value than ever. Corps are posting record profits. And yet the people doing the work are getting the smallest slice of the pie theyāve ever gotten.
4 months ago
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Twelve billionaires now control as much wealth as 4 billion peopleāliterally half of humanity. 𤯠Twelve. People.
4 months ago
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When the rules tilt toward the rich, people notice. And when trust in core institutions erodes, markets suffer too. Middle-out growth depends on fairnessāand credibility.
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Supreme Court Increasingly Favors the Rich, Economists Say
A new study found that the courtās Republican appointees voted for the wealthier side in cases 70 percent of the time in 2022, up from 45 percent in 1953.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/us/politics/supreme-court-study-rich-poor.html
4 months ago
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A major set of state labor laws went into effect on Jan 1, including higher wages, paid leave, scheduling protections & enforcement against wage theft. This isnāt accidental. Itās the result of organizingāand proof that economies work better when workers have power.
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New Year, New Employment Laws ā What Takes Effect January 1, 2026? | Littler
As the calendar turns to 2026, employers across the country face a fresh wave of labor and employment law changes that will reshape workplace compliance, employee rights, and business operations.ā¦
https://www.littler.com/news-analysis/asap/new-year-new-employment-laws-what-takes-effect-january-1-2026
4 months ago
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Strengthening collective bargaining isn't anti-business. It's pro-economy. And the evidence is overwhelming: Research from the IMF and others shows that stronger unions reduce income inequality while supporting sustainable growth.
4 months ago
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A thriving middle class isn't just the result of economic growth. It's the CAUSE of economic growth. This changes everything.
4 months ago
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