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Oregon's middle class is fraying, with well-paying jobs in short supply and the cost of raising a family dramatically increasing. That's the assessment of a major report released today by the Oregon Center for Public Policy and Demos, a New York City-based research and advocacy institute.

"The American Dream is vanishing before our eyes," explained Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow and former NY Times columnist Bob Herbert. "Sadly, Oregonians who work hard and play by the rules can no longer expect to provide a decent life for their families."

A Silverton think tank said Tuesday that Oregon's middle class faces big issues in coming years.

The Oregon Center for Public Policy, in a report called The Fraying of Oregon's Middle Class, contends that well-paying jobs are in short supply as the cost of maintaining a family continues to increase. The center compiled the report with New York-based researcher Demos.

Most American workers have had the legal right to join unions for 76 years. So you might not think letting people know about that right would be controversial, especially when the information is conveyed by yet another poster in the employee break room or office, next to the one that says you can’t make 14-year-olds work in coal mines and that the federal minimum wage is $7.25.

That the world's first government to back a plan that "regulates the creation and trade of carbon credits from farming and forestry" should be Australia's is no surprise.

Amy Traub, a senior policy analyst at watchdog group Demos, says that credit-based insurance scores hurt lower-income people more because they are more likely to have lower scores. She noted a study that showed while those with lower scores made more claims because they couldn't swallow the costs, the cost of those claims were not necessarily greater.

Reckless speculation on Wall Street -- which helped cause the financial crisis and Great Recession -- is a big reason why budget deficits have spiralled skyward since 2008, so it's only fair that Wall Street do its share to reduce these deficits. 

In the past 15 years the ramifications of poor credit have grown, as credit score "mission creep" has set in, said Amy Traub, a senior policy analyst with the New York-based think tank Demos and author of the recently released report "Discrediting America." Credit scores determine not just the interest rates paid on material goods, such as a cell phone or car, but also the pricing of utilities and insurance. Approximately 60 percent of employers use credit reports to screen job applicants.