About the Middle Class Advocacy Institute

The MCAI Institute

Founded by Paul and Sarah Edwards, the goal of the Middle Class Advocacy Institute is to provide information and services related to issues facing the middle-class.
The importance of a large and healthy middle class has been recognized throughout history.


       Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote, "The most perfect political community
       must be amongst those who are in the middle rank.”

Father of the US Constitution, James Madison claimed, “The role of
government is to promote an American middle class.”

       Upon visiting America, French political thinker and historian, Alexis de
       Tocqueville marveled at finding a whole society "who were neither rich or
       poor."

American poet Walt Whitman believed, “The most valuable class in any
community is the middle class.”

For us a healthy middle class represents a society where life is ample for all without waste or excess. It’s not about material possessions or income so much as about state a mind in which one can rest assured of having the basics of life – a good job, a place to call home, enough to eat, good health, access to education, and the time to enjoy them in a safe and robust natural environment.

But every day our middle class is shrinking. Not since 1928 at the doorway to the Great Depression has the inequality gap between the rich and the poor been as wide as it is today. More people are scrambling to stay afloat. Most are in debt. Many are worried about losing their jobs, their homes, their health insurance, and financial security. And the natural environment upon which we depend for our very lives is eroding around us.

We are an increasingly anxious and worried nation.

We can’t sit by and allow our the vast middle class that has from the beginning been the most visible manifestation of the seven words that serve as the foundation of who we are and what we stand for as a nation – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - slip into a divided society.

We would tolerate that at great peril. As extensive research by political scientist Robert Putnam has pointed out, a predominantly equal society is a strong society; a divided one is ripe not only for conflict, suffering and despair, but for collapse.

The Institute’s programs include News Updates, Opinion Blogs, Policy Proposals, a Book Store, and an umbrella for the related services we provide: Virtual Political Campaign Consulting, Personal Financial Mental Health Counseling, and Continuing Education for Helping Professionals.