What shifted in the intervening years was part of a national trend toward emphasizing college and the knowledge industry. This emphasis on college turned out to be little more than a sleight-of-hand to disguise the devastating impact globalization was having on the American working class. The message to working-class Americans wasn't just that they had missed the boat, but that it was their own stupidity and lack of education that resulted in the widening chasm separating them from the college educated, and that the college educated deserved their good fortune, for they had earned it.
Many college grads are finding that their liberal arts degrees will not help them achieve the American dream. To the contrary, their college education has saddled them with heavy debt, which pushes them even further from the American dream.
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