“[A] central theme of this story is that expectations move slower than reality on the ground. That was true when people clung to 1950s expectations as the economy changed over the next 35 years. And even if a middle-class boom began today, expectations that the odds are stacked against everyone but those at the top may stick around.”

(This is interesting and insightful, but I link to it with a very large caveat: It erases minorities from the story.)