WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES KNOW ALL ABOUT AUSTERITY

"The optimism underpinning our politics and our social policy depends on the conviction that success in this country is not zero-sum. This belief is fast eroding. In its place, a creeping distrust is sapping the optimism from our system, perhaps the most crucial quality in what has made us an "exceptional" nation." THE AGE OF AUSTERITY by Thomas Byrne Edsall