The Cost of Getting Ahead: Wealth, Economic Mobility, and Pathways to the Middle Class

Join The Boston Globe, ABCD, and MassINC for a conversation focused on wealth, economic mobility and sustainable pathways to the middle class. Recent research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, as well as research by the MassINC Policy Center, paints a troubling picture of the growing divide in Massachusetts between those who have been able to accumulate wealth and financial assets and those who have not.

Despite our extraordinary economic resources and prosperity, far too many individuals and families struggle not only to make ends meet, but to build the savings, home equity, retirement security, and other assets that provide a foundation for long-term economic opportunity.

As a continuation of ABCD’s Next Chapter series, this conversation brings community members, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners together to explore practical ways to expand opportunity and economic mobility. The discussion will examine the state of family wealth, the challenges of making it to the middle class, and the changing relationship between work, education, income, and economic mobility. The conversation will also focus on solutions: the policies, investments, and community strategies needed to rebuild pathways to financial security and sustain a strong, inclusive middle class across the Commonwealth.