Has Downsizing Gone Too Far
is a longterm challenge ahead of us that has to do primarily with a widening gap that has accumulated over twenty years between people at the top and wage earners at the bottom. A lot of people in the middle are anxious, and for two reasons. One, because of the long-term decline in median wages. That's the wage of the person right smack in the middle and everybody below, but also because the rate of permanent job loss is higher in the 1990s than in the 1980s. Most families rely on two wage earners, or they rely on a single wage earner who is the sole parent of that house; therefore, if one wage is lost, that can mean the difference between making ends meet and destitution. So for a whole va-