The future of the middle class
Featuring keynote remarks by former Vice President Joe Biden
Past Event
Welcome, Introduction, and Panel 1: Defining the Middle Class
Welcome, Introduction, and Panel 1: Defining the Middle Class
Panel 2: Barriers to middle class prosperity
Keynote address: Vice President Joe Biden
An era of rapid change in the economy and how we work—from automation to the gig economy—is transforming the middle class. As the benefits of our changing economy become less and less evenly distributed, many middle class Americans are feeling left behind. On May 8, the new Future of the Middle Class Initiative at Brookings and the Biden Foundation co-hosted a forum on the future of the middle class, featuring a keynote address by former Vice President Joe Biden.
The first panel—moderated by Camille Busette, director of the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative at Brookings—discussed the many ways we define “middle class,” and how middle-class challenges are experienced differently across various demographics. The second panel, which was moderated by Ben Harris of the Biden Foundation, detailed barriers to competition in the workforce and identified forward-looking proposals to improve conditions for the American middle class.
You can learn more about the Biden Foundation here, and more about the Biden Forum here. The Biden Forum is the Foundation’s ongoing discussion on policies to advance the middle class.
Agenda
Welcome and Introduction
Session Materials
Panel 1: Defining the Middle Class
Camille Busette
Interim Vice President and Director - Governance Studies
Director - Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative
Kilolo Kijakazi
Institute Fellow and Director, Integrated Financial Coaching Project - Urban Institute
Janet Gornick
Director of the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality; Professor of Political Science and Sociology - The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Session Materials
Panel 2: Barriers to middle class prosperity
Benjamin H. Harris
Former Brookings Expert
Executive Director of the Kellogg Public-Private Interface - Kellogg School of Management
Michael R. Strain
Director and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy - Economic Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Melissa S. Kearney
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center on Children and Families
Session Materials
Keynote address: Vice President Joe Biden
Session Materials
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