What’s important now is not to let what happened to Fishtown be ignored. For whatever reasons, the culture that used to characterize working-class America — indeed, that made working-class America the spine of America’s civic culture — has come apart. Recognizing that this has happened is the indispensable first step in figuring out what to do next.

As critics see it, the loss of our common culture is a result not of cultural changes but of shifts in policy and the economy. There are two problems with this line of argument.

Charles Murray proposes four original solutions in response to the problems posed by the growing class divide among whites in America, as detailed in his bestselling book, "Coming Apart".

The haves in our society are increasingly cocooned in a system that makes it easy for their children to continue to be haves. That said, four steps might weaken the isolation of, at least, the children of the new upper class.

Our understanding of white America is subject to a number of outdated assumptions that need rethinking.