A lot of them, like the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution, were built to advise parties that no longer exist. Government has welfare programs to serve the poor and they have programs like 529 savings accounts to subsidize the rich. What you get is a layer of society that has been denuded of institutions and social bonds. A generation ago, working-class families were about as likely to be part of religious communities as affluent Americans, but now their participation rates have plummeted. A generation ago, working-class families were nearly as likely to be married as affluent people, but now only half the children in working-class families will be raised in adolescence by stably married parents.

Source: New York Times November 23, 2018 00:00 UTC