This political muscle led to deregulated financial markets, tax cuts for the hyper-wealthy, and a system where "banks are organized; their customers are not".
In their book , political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson present a "detective story" that investigates why American economic inequality has skyrocketed since the late 1970s. The Central Mystery: Who Stole the Middle-Class Dream?
While labor unions and middle-class advocacy groups declined, corporate interests organized into powerful lobbying machines. Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made t...
Instead of a rising tide lifting all boats, they describe an economy where "yachts are rising, but dinghies are largely staying put". The Culprit: Organized Politics
The "crime" wasn't committed by the market, but by . The story highlights a massive organizational shift starting around 1978: This political muscle led to deregulated financial markets,
Elite interests didn't always need to pass new laws. Often, they just had to block updates to old ones—a tactic called "drift"—letting inflation and market changes erode middle-class protections like the minimum wage or labor laws.
Between 1979 and 2007, the richest 1% saw their income grow by 256% , while the bottom 80% grew by only 20% . The Central Mystery: Who Stole the Middle-Class Dream
The authors found that economic growth didn't just favor the "educated"—it favored the , and even more so the top 0.1% .