Great story, one I'm glad to see written/published but I have to take exception to what I highlighted. Unless you consider millionaire slumlords who became rich by ripping off Federal government housing programs to swindle taxpayer dollars to be 'middle-class', then we have a fundamental disagreement. Fred Trump was not middle-class by any definition of the term.

Still, great story, thanks for writing what so many of us 'Okay, Boomer's would like younger people to understand but just can't get it across to many of them. Born in 1959, I saw no gold in my life, no 'good things' that I 'stole' from young people facing the nightmares of today claim we had but 'pulled up the ladder behind us' as many younger people seem to believe. What I did see is a generation living through a decade wherein many teens who honestly didn't believe we'd live to see the year 2000, the privileges of buying gas for your car based on the last digit of your license plate and long lines to do that, near hyper-inflation, stagflation, and the 1980 inauguration of the 'Greed is good' actor playing President and dissolution of unions.