Is the American Dream dead? Millions of Americans who have had a high-school education or been to college, work in respectable jobs and spend money frugally, nevertheless live in poverty, unable to afford the basic necessities for their families. At the end of the prosperous "80s, families of Americans who were employed yet still poor accounted for nearly 30 million people, three times the government"s official estimate. This book reveals the betrayal of hopes and expectations of these people through real-life stories of individual families, as well as evidence on a national scale. The authors explore the reasons why this kind of poverty is so widespread and detail how the government came to underestimate its severity. Unless correct action is taken, the authors suggest, the United States risks the emergence of rigid class divisions and, ultimately, the creation of a deeply fractured society.