Caught between rising aspirations and stagnant wages, Reich says, middle-class Americans have gone through a series of coping mechanisms.
Not undertaking reforms that will boost growth needed to meet the rising aspirations is a one-way path for the government to be out of a job.
"A care and support system that reflects the needs of our times and meets our rising aspirations is achievable, but only if we are prepared to rise to the challenge of radical reform".
It gave direct expression to the rising aspirations for betterment amongst the skilled working classes, particularly in Southern England, and secured their allegiance to a conservative vision of a property owning democracy.
But the biggest reason is that the revolution has brought plenty of problems in its wake.Production versus reproductionOne obvious problem is that women's rising aspirations have not been fulfilled.
The delicate balancing act for them is to find a price low enough that it does not hurt economic growth in the industrial economies, but high enough to pay for the rising aspirations of their own people.
Given the controversy around immigration in recent weeks, the government seemingly wants not just to "respond to the rising aspirations" of the British people but also to appease their anxieties on the issue.
Think of the challenges we face: security, global competition, climate change, building stronger communities and responding to rising aspirations - none can be met without involving and engaging the people of Britain.
The sour mood is informed instead by the contrast between rising aspirations and enduring hardships; by a growing sense of alienation from the state; and by the unease of anticipation as the end of an era inevitably looms ever closer.It is not surprising that Egyptians should feel rather like driftwood on the Nile, accelerating towards one of the great river's cataracts.
Some prominent Chinese economists are warning that the potentially corrosive effects of an approach that favors government companies at the expense of the private sector could eventually stifle innovation, saying it could stunt China's long-term growth and quash the rising aspirations of the nation's 1.3 billion people.
