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Chasing the American Dream: What happened to the middle class?

For many people today who are struggling to make ends meet, the opportunities of the previous generation seem like a distant memory.

Many who came of age in the 1970s and 80s in particular remember a time when a single-income family could afford a house, a car, groceries and gas, and still have extra money for vacations, leisure activities, and sometimes even a second home. Those days seem to be gone, as many two-income households with children live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to put anything extra aside. And the issue is not limited to families.

Many individuals living on their own find they cannot get ahead financially. It raises a question, one that is difficult to answer succinctly: Did something change fundamentally about the economy in the last thirty to forty years, something that was rigged or stacked against the average middle class citizen? Or have our priorities shifted in that time, so that it only appears we are worse off?

We set out to explore this question, by spending time with a wide range of people trying to chase the seemingly elusive American Dream. We dive into how people are dealing with the gap between their desires and their resources, and what success looks like to them.

Along the way, we explore the possibility of a new way of looking at the economy in this country, and how that might help ease some of that burden.

Watch the full feature story in the video player above.