MIDDLE CLASS, LOW HOPES.

In the Atlanta metro area, where Swope and Greene live, the median listing price is $400,000, up 7.5% from last year. Swope, on the other hand, graduated from college with a marketing degree in 2003, and got a job selling Yellow Pages ads. Although Swope, a 42-year-old teacher, and his wife Amanda Greene, a nurse, make $125,000 a year, they couldn't handle that steep a rent increase - not alongside the student loans and car payments and utility bills and all the other costs that have kept growing for a family of three. He - like Jeff Swope, and many of the other people interviewed for this story - direct much of their frustrations at the very rich, who accumulate wealth in investments, which when withdrawn are taxed at a far lower rate than wages. [Extracted from the article]

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