Over the last year, Nick Maggiulli has come to what he calls an unsettling realization: The upper-middle class is caught in a trap, and many of them don’t even realize it.
The chief operating officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management has spent the better part of a year building the case in pieces on his blog, Of Dollars and Data—first arguing private school isn’t worth the cost despite its price tag, then that premium travel experiences have grown crowded while remaining expensive in “The Death of the Amex Lounge.” He previously talked to Fortune about his book, The Wealth Ladder, and his growing belief “something weird’s going on” with the upper-middle class in the U.S. economy.
