It is worth mentioning that an economy that produces higher added value will have a fallback on the lower classes too. While the delta in wealth between the rich and the poor has been increasing, in relative terms the poor have been getting richer. A poor today is way better than a poor 50 years ago or even 20 years ago. If you are concerned about what poor people can do, then think to all those products that now are too expensive but that a future richer society might want. For instance, in Germany (richer country than mine), is very normal to buy local/bio/laborIntensive goods like traditional food and so on, this is all stuff that non educated people can do and will do in the future.

I generally agree with this, but in some locations an exception to this is real estate, in that a growing subset of the market are becoming increasingly priced out of ever buying anything. Interestingly, the US for the most part is not currently suffering from this due to the bursting of the housing bubble.

Yeah, but the thing is, we are not really running out of flats/houses, we are running out of space in the cities. That is a way less bleak future than the parent proposed, it just means that poor people will leave far from the city center, but can we really blame that? Is that even a problem? People leave where they can afford, that's just the reality, as long as they can afford a good house with heating and all the other nice stuff, I think location is not that much of an issue.

Location is a big issue for people who rely on public transportation to get to their places of employment. It's not always feasible to live far away from where the jobs are and not everyone can simply telecommute or otherwise work from home.

An area where the poor in the US are frequently worse off than in the past is in access to quality education for their children, which then holds families and communities in multi-generational poverty, and reinforces the trends described in the article.

When I was young, a unskilled laborer's child had access to the same or similar quality schools as I did (although I had much bigger advantages in culture by having educated parents). Today, the working poor in the US are often "richer" in shallow ways - they can buy a smartphone and a big TV - but they are less able than ever to afford a good education for their kids, usually because they simply cannot afford a home in a good school district.

The legalization of millions of illegal immigrants is really going to seal the deal.

If we really go that route, the whole thing will fall apart soon after food becomes unaffordable. Most of us are not moral enough to starve.

Then you'll have just enough food? Or the military-police ?

This is how most humans have lived throughout history (and many still do). The last 500 years or so are an anomaly by comparison

What are the low-wage jobs that are currently protected that TPP would open to competition?

I don't know what's in TPP--it's supposedly classified. The little that slipped out is troubling though.

I think the next decade is going to be tough for most people including the highly educated.

I would like to stem the flow of jobs drifting overseas, but don't feel confident. Programmers, even the ones with degrees are going to be hit hard. There's not to many white collar professions a hungry, intelligent person in another country could not master over the Internet--more easily than programming, and website developement?

I hope this TPP is not as bad as it seems? I sometimes think Obama knew the party was over? I saw the desperation in his face when he felt he couldn't convince Americans they need health insurance. He knew the president really couldn't change the economy, but he knew we needed health coverage. (Coverage that would protect the family home from hospital litigators--if an uninsured family member got sick).

I wish us well, but am scared. I do wish Bush let the banks fail. That cd with .1 percent is frighting. These low rates helped the economy, but really hurt guys like me. Guys who couldn't gamble in stocks.

I am giving Obama the benefit of the doubt on this trade agreement. If it's as bad as some say; Trump might have a shot at president if he is serious about his reversing the trade imbalance, and bring America back to a manufacturing Country?

On the minimum wage; I feel Obama sees the writing on the wall--the future will be bleak. The rich will have disposable income. The rich will still need to eat, buy, and hire security guards, etc. There will be great inflation. Why not get ahead of the game and raise the minimum wage? It might help out the majority(including the educated, whom don't come from benevolent wealthy families) get a little bit ahead?

I wish I moved to France in the late 80's. I had a shot, but was afraid.

>Trump might have a shot at president if he is serious about >his reversing the trade imbalance, and bring America back to >a manufacturing Country?

Trump is no friend of the working man/woman and has 0% of being president.