Why We Must Refound America on a Foundation of Equity

The US middle class is dead. The sour national mood shows that the time for a national refounding is now. Instead of mourning, let’s build a more durable, more inclusive, more prosperous United States. But what can that look like? To start, we must be a nation that makes economic equity available to all—one where people can thrive.

A History of Founding

The United States has been founded and refounded many times. In the most expansive and accurate sense, this land was first home to Indigenous peoples. After European settlement began, each colony had its own founding. When people eulogize the “founding fathers,” it is important to recall that the American Revolution was one of many foundings—and there were numerous false starts.

We face crisis of identity for this country—and like those before it, it provides an opportunity for change.

The original Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, for example, adopted after the Revolution and ratified in 1781, lasted less than a decade. The US Constitution has lasted 235 years, but it has been amended, interpreted, and reinterpreted on countless occasions. The Civil War attempted to bestow citizenship on Black men and began the long, unfinished process of dismantling slavery.

The early 1900s saw the rise of federal power and the beginnings of protections for working people and voting rights for women. Amid the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration created a strong, secure (largely White) middle class while rebuilding a nation in chaos, torn by dissent and despair.

The New Deal’s establishment of Social Security, worker protections, and other lasting threads of the social safety net reshaped US society, creating a durable, socially mobile White middle class for the first time in this nation’s history. As a result of Roosevelt’s work to restructure the country, people born in 1940 had a 90-percent chance of making more money than their parents did. However, of those born two generations later in 1984—today’s middle-aged workforce—only half are doing better than their parents did.

A Declining Middle Class

The US middle class is shrinking fast. At one time, a White middle-class family could look forward to home ownership on a single income, children could access higher education, and retirement was secure. Today, this reality exists only for those far beyond the middle class.

Elevated rent is leading to sharply higher rates of evictions, more than 40 percent above pre-pandemic levels in some cities. College education is a luxury for many, far exceeding what most families can afford. The security that the previous generation had is fading.

The nation faces a crisis of civic order, so we require a civic solution—just as was the case in the wake of the Civil War, the Great Depression, and other crises.

It is worth noting that there is no agreed-upon definition of what the middle class is. The Brookings Institute noted recently that “its composition varies significantly based on geographic location and identity. Wealth disparities among different racial and ethnic groups complicate the landscape, challenging the notion of a homogenous middle-class experience.” It then settled on annual household income between $30,000 and $153,000, an extraordinarily wide range.

Brookings found that the middle class, using its definition, is most prevalent in California and the Northeast—and still is disproportionately White. Many are excluded.

A Crisis of National Identity

We face a crisis of identity for this country—and like those before it, it provides an opportunity for change. The nature of the crisis makes sense. When people live “paycheck to paycheck,” participating in democracy is far less urgent than making sure the rent is paid, the car works, and food is on the table.

Yet democracy and civic participation are urgent. Participating in democracy is part of how Americans have lifted up themselves, their families, and their communities—whether those were Virginia farm towns in the 1780s, northern industrial cities in the 1930s, or regions on the cusp of change like Kansas City today.

In Kansas City, coauthor Earl Martin Phalen runs Great Jobs KC, which links people to the thousands of good-paying jobs available to be filled in technology, healthcare, and other industries. To get those jobs, many people need education, training, certification, and other support. Great Jobs KC has helped fill those gaps for thousands of students and job candidates since its founding in 2016.

The primary goal of programs like Great Jobs KC is to enable economic mobility, but it is not the only goal. The work is predicated on the notion that when people are fed and stable, they’ll spend time and energy on improving their civic life as well.

The data are clear. If people are doing well, they are more likely to vote and even run for office. These are the building blocks of democratic practice. Economic stability, in short, is an antidote to withdrawal and a precursor to civic involvement.

But economic stability requires a truly livable minimum wage or a guaranteed living income for all. It requires governmental services focused on finding ways to help rather than finding ways to deny help.

If the United States lacks a secure middle class and has limited social mobility, as is largely the case today, it undermines the belief that if you work hard, make good decisions, and are kind to others, you’ll live a good life.

This is a situation beyond the purview of philanthropy or nonprofits. The nonprofit sector is already patching holes in a fraying social safety net, and it is unrealistic—and arguably inappropriate—to expect this sector to recreate the country’s middle class.

If there is a role for philanthropy, it is to get people on their feet and provide them enough hope so they are empowered to act. People with stable jobs, good educations, and prospects for improvement will seize the moment.

Forging a New Civic Path: Toward a Third Reconstruction

The nation faces a crisis of civic order, so we require a civic solution—just as was the case in the wake of the Civil War, the Great Depression, and other crises.

We are not the only ones making this observation. The Reverend William Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, notes that African Americans have made major civil rights gains in two prior periods—during the Reconstruction period that immediately followed the Civil War and during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which is widely recognized as a “second reconstruction.”

Now, Barber calls for a third reconstruction, predicated on ending poverty and establishing a living wage.

To make a difference, this third reconstruction or next refounding of America must reenvision what it means to support each other. The social services first created during the New Deal and expanded since then have devolved from agencies that provide help into agencies that deny it. Anyone who has spent hours filling out forms and filing appeals and standing in lines knows this is true. The focus in both the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton on rooting out what little fraud existed by beneficiaries has metastasized into a presumption that people should suffer for the help they get.

The success of efforts like Great Jobs KC—and there are so many others—shows the lie at the center of this ideology. In fact, providing access to support is at least as important as merely creating jobs and idly hoping that there are enough qualified people nearby to fill them. This approach, rendered on a broader scale, must replace the current standard practice of looking to deny help instead of providing it.

Creating Institutions That Serve People

What would it look like if the US social safety net focused not on enforcing benefit exclusion rules but on helping people?

Such a shift would have major consequences. Instead of a healthcare system where insurance companies incentivize doctors to deny care, the United States would have a system that presumes that people’s physical and mental health has more value than insurance stock prices. Instead of an education system that welcomes the wealthy and well-connected, education would focus on serving students who would benefit the most from access to knowledge and resources.

A refounding could throw open the doors of opportunity.

Such a notion may seem too hopeful amid the results of the 2024 presidential elections, which at least in the short run will certainly move the country in the opposite direction. But movement and nonprofit leaders must take a longer-term perspective and push forward for a refounding that aligns with their values.

It is the communitarian spirit that will allow a new movement for an equitable society to emerge and prevail. The goal, in short, must be to create the conditions where a more democratic refounding becomes possible.