Mechele Dickerson

Paperback Nonfiction Books - Best Sellers - Books - The New York Times The New York Times Best Sellers are up-to-date and authoritative lists of the most popular books in the United States, based on sales in the past week, including fiction, non-fiction, paperbacks, chil...

Absolutely overjoyed to see that my book has debuted at #5 on the New York Times list for new nonfiction!!! Please buy it, read it, and tell our political leaders to enact laws & policies that help restore the American middle-class. www.nytimes.com/books/best-s...

Affordability is not just the "political word of the moment" & isn't a hoax. As my book shows, even with a strong stock market, America’s middle class is struggling & angry b/c they can’t find good jobs, affordable housing or child care, or pay their bills on time. @geoffgarin.bsky.social

He explains how to destroy the middle class in a few easy steps. My book shows how to protect the middle class in a few easy steps: bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

Thanks for your kind comments. As for your neighbor - oh my. Not the way to "welcome" a new neighbor 😒

Thank you! I'm happy to talk to anyone and everyone who wants to help find ways to make it easier for people to become, and REMAIN, middle class!

Glad you enjoyed it. I'd like federal leaders to end the MID for higher-income taxpayers and use to revenue to subsidize affordable housing (build more, give renters a tax credit, etc.) or enact other policies to help fix the housing affordability crisis.

These Young Adults Make Good Money. But Life, They Say, Is Unaffordable.

My new book (www.ucpress.edu/books/the-mi...) explains why young adults can afford middle-class “stuff” but can't attain the markers of the middle class, like buying a home. Being financially fragile means they aren’t starting families. Not a hoax: this is a crisis. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/u...

YouTube video by MeidasTouch LIVE: Veteran RESPONDS to Trump’s WAR CRIMES

Enjoyed talking w/ @fpwellman.bsky.social re: affordability, the middle class & my new book (www.ucpress.edu/books/the-mi...). The convo starts ~ 18:20: www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_48.... Spoiler: affordability isn’t a “hoax.” Middle-class folks are struggling b/c political leaders are ignoring them.

More than 75% of homes across the U.S. are unaffordable, study finds Homeownership can feel like a luxury when only a sliver of the country's housing market is affordable for most Americans, Bankrate analyst says.

As I discuss in detail in my new book (www.ucpress.edu/books/the-mi...) on the middle-class, homeownership is slipping away from the middle-class. These families are struggling now just to find affordable rental housing. www.cbsnews.com/news/afforda...

Why millennials don't feel richer than boomers — even though they are Rich millennials are doing OK, but they feel terrible about their finances and the economy. They're comparing themselves to peers and boomer parents.

I note in this piece (& explain in more detail in my forthcoming book) that young adults are anxious & angry because they are struggling financially. Many wonder whether they will ever become (much less remain) middle class. businessinsider.com/millennial-e... via
@businessinsider.com

Norms and rules matter. My hot-off-the-press article that explores the shattering of norms and procedural rules in 2020-2024 Trump-aligned cases predicted much of what we're now experiencing. www.utoledo.edu/law/law-revi...

Why should politicians care about the #middleclass? As I argue in detail in my soon-to-be-published book with the @ucpress.bsky.social, we won't have a thriving economy if we don't have a strong middle class. Restoring the middle class is good for American families & for society overall.

Today's job news is awful. Even the anticipated interest rate cut won't help unemployed workers & recent college graduates find jobs soon enough to prevent them from suffering financially. It'll be years before lower/middle-income families recover from this administration's economic policies.

66% of straight Repub men who don't have kids want kids someday. The challenge with reversing declining fertility rates? Only 43% of straight Dem men, 42% of R women & 38% of D women want kids. Liberal "single cat ladies" aren't the problem. The likely culprit? Financial precarity & uncertainty.

Wealthy families are buying homes to get in-state tuition at Texas universities The practice has been accepted by public universities across the state. The law has fed a growing industry of families buying condos in cash, holding onto them for a couple years and then selling to t...

Lower- & middle-income families can't afford to buy homes in Austin & can't always afford the full cost to attend UT (neither are problems for rich Texans). Rich out-of-state families have found a loophole to get in-state tuition AND keep housing costs high near campus. www.kut.org/education/20...

Parents are struggling to find good jobs & reasonably priced care for their kids. US fertility/birthrates are at historic lows. The gov't says it wants more young adults to have kids, but is trying to gut convenient & affordable after-school & summer programs. Make it make sense. t.co/MdNlwTHvyk

Pew Applauds Texas Lawmakers for Passage of Much-Needed Housing Legislation WASHINGTON—The Pew Charitable Trusts today commended the Texas Legislature and Governor Greg Abbott (R) for enacting a suite of seven bills passed with bipartisan support and designed to improve housi...

On a mostly bipartisan basis, the Texas Leg just made it easier for cities to create smaller homes & multi-family units in mixed-use developments even if there's NIMBY opposition. It’s not perfect but it's at least a start to respond to the affordable housing crisis. www.pew.org/en/about/new....

HB 27 - 89th Legislature Regular Session Relating to courses in personal financial literacy and economics for high school students in public schools.

Young adults need stable/good paying jobs to be financially stable, but kudos to Texas legislators for passing (on a bipartisan basis) legislation to require a course in financial literacy & help young people hopefully avoid stupid financial decisions. www.texaspolicyresearch.com/bills/89th-l....

Opinion | Stop Trying to Make Everyone Go to College

Rather than gut public education by eliminating the Dept of Ed or pushing private school vouchers, political leaders should support career and technical education programs that prepare students for in-demand middle-class jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/o...

Most Americans don't earn enough to afford basic costs of living, analysis finds The bottom 60% of U.S. households don't make enough money to afford a "minimal quality of life," according to a new analysis.

The ideal of the American dream of upward mobility if you work hard & follow the rules doesn’t match the current reality. Middle-class families are struggling to make ends meet & their children may be even worse off than they are. Politicians: where are you? www.cbsnews.com/news/cost-of...

How Tiny Homes Could Solve a Big Problem for Los Angeles As L.A. rebuilds homes lost to wildfires, accessory dwelling units have emerged as a win-win solution for homeowners and city planners.

City leaders must radically rethink their land use policies or America's middle class will forever struggle to find affordable housing (to rent or to buy). Tiny homes/ADUs can be both short- and long-term housing fixes. www.inc.com/sarah-sicard...

How a new Infrastructure Academy could help meet Austin workforce gaps, deliver high wages Mayor Watson, ACC and Workforce Solutions' Infrastructure Academy will launch with a career fair Wednesday to help meet Austin's high demand for jobs.

To save the middle-class, all cities should consider creating an “Infrastructure Academy” that partners with unions & community colleges to provide skills training & child care that will prepare non-college workers for careers that pay living wages. www.statesman.com/story/news/e...

The cover for this book is green (representing money) and has a a faint vertical ladder in the background that represents upward mobility. The ladder leads to horizontal 4 separate pictures of a piggy bank, diploma and mortarboard, house and two people shaking hands. The pictures represent the markers of the middle class (savings, a college degree, homeownership, and having a good job) and what is generally viewed as the American Dream of success.

At long last, my book that explores why so many lower/middle-income people struggle to become & remain middle-class will be published in early 2026. Given current economic trends & political realities, I’m sadly confident that this book will be relevant for the foreseeable future.

Like @dalie.bsky.social, I'm excited to attend the @brooklynlawschool.bsky.social symposium & discuss my forthcoming book for the very first time with an amazing group of scholars!

Registration and full agenda here: www.brooklaw.edu/news-and-eve...

How a South Texas community college embraced apprenticeships to ease a growing nursing shortage South Texas College in McAllen launched one of the first registered nursing apprenticeships in the country as area hospitals expect the need for nurses to increase.

Apprenticeships use an “earn-while-you-learn” model to give young workers skills (but no crippling student loan debt) to help them get middle-class jobs. This apprenticeship program also helps alleviate a critical “Texas-sized” nursing shortage.

www.texastribune.org/2025/02/17/t...

Small Single-Stairway Apartment Buildings Have Strong Safety Record Policymakers could increase the supply of multifamily housing in their states and localities by revising outdated building codes that require more than one stairway in small apartment buildings. If en...

To increase the supply of affordable housing, cities must review all building codes to ensure regulations (for ex. 2 required stairways in buildings 3 floors+) are still needed given safety features (like sprinklers & fire-rated walls) mandated in new buildings.
www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...

Hundreds of Philly IRS workers laid off on Thursday, union says Hundreds of Philadelphia IRS employees were laid off on Thursday as part of the Trump administration's efforts to cut down the size of the federal workforce, a union leader confirmed with NBC10.

These firings are going to gut the middle-class workforce. Lots of reasons the IRS is targeted. But let's not ignore that of the roughly 90,000 employees nationwide: non-Whites constitute 56% and women are 65%

www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/p...

When middle-class federal workers were furloughed during the 2018-2019 gov't shutdown, many had to borrow from friends/family, sell things on eBay, or use GoFundMe just to make ends meet. Can't even imagine what they'll have to do if they are fired on (cruelly) short notice.

About 3 weeks after the Nov 2024 election, I started viewing political announcements using this lens of “will this make things easier or harder for lower- & middle-income families to become and remain middle class?” Harder is still winning by a landslide.