The strange case of America’s disappearing middle class | Paul Mason

Middle America is being squeezed from both ends, by the rich and the poor. This new insecurity is fertile territory for the likes of Donald Trump

The shot was of two women in party dresses taking a selfie next to the Greek riot police. In the summer of 2015 it was an unremarkable sight - middle-class supporters of the euro rallying to save Greece from the threat of Grexit. But when I described the scene, in a voiceover aimed at an American audience, a query came back from the US: this does not sound right; they look too posh to be middle class.

Middle class, in the US, means what working class means in Britain. Except that, while nobody - even in Corbyn's Labour party - goes around saying they represent "working-class values", all politicians in America claim to represent the values of this middle class.

Related: Guardian readers: US middle class is 'living from one crisis to the next'