One aspect of trickle-down economics that has functioned quite effectively is how increasingly hard people of all ages are working. The youngest among us have increasingly lengthened school years and return home laden with assignments for the next day.
Their teachers and their parents frequently work two, sometimes three jobs with day care, commuting expenses, and the cost of school supplies for their own classrooms diminishing take-home pay.
There is criticism that families spend less time together these days, scarcely meeting each other’s eyes. It may not be a matter of what that would look like in houses devoid of dining rooms or front porches, but rather where time with enough energy and space to engage meaningfully would ever come from.