Make the Middle Class Great Again

The middle class around the globe has been diminishing in size. Many economists have used many statistical analyses to present the fact, but no one seems to have provided a satisfactory explanation or solution for it. An astonishing fact found is that most people studying this economic phenomenon have a narrowed specialty only in economics. They don't have sufficient multidisciplinary background to confidently tackle this issue of inherently gigantic in scope and cross-disciplinary in nature. The lacking of systematic and logical treatment of this issue by both economists and politicians of limited background has made an issue that can be resolved with ration an issue of passion instead. It is no surprise that tug-war between liberal and conservative believers went on and on for years without getting the real issue solved. And the situation will get worse as technologies advance at increasing speed. It is about time someone of wider background and experience to speak out freely without subject to the limitation or constraints of academic faction or political party association. It is for this motive that the author went out of his profession as a patent attorney, to write such a book in the hope to trigger a grassroots movement to make the middle class great again. In this book, the author first introduces and explains a new concept called relative productivity of an economy. The author then goes on to introduce and explain why economy rewards relative productivity instead of absolute productivity, why this is the reason that one's life does not necessarily get better at the introduction of new technologies to the economy, why average workers have increasing difficulty staying at top-paying job, why wealth and income inequality occur as a natural result of technology advancement, why the fix to diminishing middle class to large degree has to do with reintegrating middle class back to top-income producing mechanism of the economy, what had gone wrong in the past, and how the fix is like at a personal level as well as at a grassroots movement level, with each of them further divided into several subtopics. For the grassroots movement to make middle class great again, the author further proposes a brand new use of quid pro quo principle to work out a non-zero-sum win-win solution with big corporations to resolve diminishing middle-class issue once and for all and proves its feasibility by referring to similar existing practices in urban planning and patent law arena. The majority of observations and discussions of the author in this book have not been presented elsewhere. The author intentionally make this book both an eye-opener and reference book for those who do not have multiple backgrounds or experiences. During the subtopic discussions such as stagnant wages, social immobility, skyrocketing medical care costs, expensive housing, and high tax burden, the author provides a lot of useful tips and references for readers who are interested in further exploring their options based on their individual situations. The areas touched on by this book include the latest high-tech development, macroeconomics, mortgage lending, insurance, estate planning, tax planning, immigration, urban planning, patent law, healthcare, US laws, international trading, and so on. It is unlikely for an economist without exposure to all these areas as the author has to write a book with the same degree of confidence, coherence, and comprehensiveness on the same topic. The reader is encouraged to read this book from cover to cover, to develop a holistic view first, and keep this book handy to explore the options you may take, at either the personal level to mitigate immediate hardship if any of being a middle-class member, or at the grassroots movement level to find out how you can contribute to the ultimate fix to the middle-class issue through casting your vote to right candidates and weeding out those who won't cut.