How McKinsey Destroyed the American Middle Class

This article examines the impact of management consulting firms like McKinsey on the decline of the American middle class. The author argues that McKinsey, by promoting shareholder primacy and implementing strategies aimed at streamlining corporate structures and eliminating middle management (such as 'reengineering' and 'overhead value analysis'), led to massive layoffs, a decline in middle management and blue-collar jobs, weakened unions, and ultimately exacerbated economic inequality and the destruction of the American middle class. The author concludes that this 'technocratic management' approach fails to address structural inequalities and instead widens the gap between elites and the general population.