September 3, 2014

by Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

I consider this column exploratory. I am not an economist, and I have much more to learn about income inequality. Indeed, I welcome your comments, which I will use as a basis for a subsequent column (jnowlan3@gmail.com).
But I know something is going on. I need only look at my hometown of Toulon in central-western Illinois.
When I was a boy in the 1950s, older boys would graduate from high school and take jobs “on the line” at Caterpillar in Peoria and Deere in Moline, and earn more than their college-educated school teacher sisters.
Most families felt they were of the middle class.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.