University of California-Berkeley and former Clinton Administration labor secretary, in an exclusive interview with NYSUT United (see page 8).

Major manufacturers are taking notice. Procter & Gamble, for example, the maker of everything from toilet paper to detergent, is pulling away from manufacturing products aimed at the middle-class consumer and is instead putting more emphasis on producing luxury and bargain-priced goods, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal.

So just how rich is America's wealthy?

In a piece titled "Can the Middle Class Be Saved?," Don Peck of The Atlantic noted that in 2009 the richest 1 percent of American households possessed as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.

If the middle class can, indeed, be saved, then its rescue could not come soon enough.

Some 1.53 million Americansin 2010 filed bankruptcy — a 9 percent increase over the previous year, according to the National Bankruptcy Research Center. The middle class, saddled with a growing crush of debt and paralyzed by flat wages in a stagnant economy, accounted for a significant share of those filings.

Especially troubling is the toll the country's economic crisis has taken on children and people of color.

The Foundation for Child Development reports that last year, 21 percent of all children in the U.S. were living below the poverty line — the highest percentage in 20 years. In New York, the number is 20 percent.

The double whammy of the Great Recession and the housing-market collapse also has created cavernous divides in wealth along racial and ethnic lines. A Pew Research analysis found the