Ms. Waugh, like many other hard-working and often overlooked Americans, has secured a spot in a profoundly transformed middle class. While the group continues to include large numbers of people sitting at desks, far fewer middle-income workers of the 21st century are donning overalls. Instead, reflecting the biggest change in recent years, millions more are in scrubs.
Pointer from Tyler Cowen. The New Commanding Heights are health care and education. As they increase employment at the margin while manufacturing production work decreases at the margin, male participation in the labor force continues to decline. Note, however, that female labor force participation has been trending down in this century, also.
While I am sympathetic to what you are saying, I just don’t see great parallels between the old and new commanding heights, besides the government’s desire to involve themselves in them. The growth in spending on health and education seems to be all about hiring administrators and staff who work in compliance or mission creep. Is that what drove the old commanding heights?