He argued that the improvement of the working class benefits society as a whole, which is evident in the period from 1945 to 1975, when the American economy flourished as economic inequality declined. Unfortunately, Reich noticed that the United States had actually fallen into a vicious cycle. A simple glance at the statistics on economic inequality in the United States is already discouraging. The lowest quintile of American households had an average income of $11,552, while the highest quintile had an average of $170,844 and the richest five percent had almost three hundred thousand dollars (US Bureau of Census 2012). This economic inequality in the United States is not a given from God, but is the result of how this society is shaped. In this consumer economy where goods and services are the pillars of support, our working class shares the least proportion of wealth for their endless work in the manufacturing and service sectors. So those who operate the wheels here literally become the wheels, and they lose their rights to the American dream. Barbara Ehrenreich is the perfect example. She described trying to live with not one, but two working-class jobs..