Step 1 : Introduction to the question "What is the most significant threat to the relatively high standard of living people are accustomed to in the United States?"
...The middle-class squeeze is the situation where increases in wages fail to keep up with inflation for middle-income earners leading to a relative decline in real wages, while at the same time, the phenomenon fails to have a similar effect on the top wage earners. People belonging to the middle class find that inflation in consumer goods and the housing market prevent them from maintaining a middle-class lifestyle, undermining aspirations of upward mobility. In the United States, middle-class income is declining while many goods and services are increasing in price, such as education, housing, child care, and healthcare
