It’s easy to write off the widening income inequality gap as just another part of a normal economic cycle. But it’s really not. The numbers are way outside the norm. For one thing, the middle class is the new classic rock. It’s disappearing just about everywhere: The latest “report by Pew Research Center found that the share of the middle class fell in 203 of the 229 U.S. metropolitan areas examined from 2000 to 2014, including major cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, which saw a relatively sharp drop in its middle class.”

+ An interactive map from Pew: Who is in it, and who is not, in U.S. Metropolitan Areas.

+ “One of the great ironies in modern America is that the less money you have, the more you pay to use it.” From Joe Pinsker in The Atlantic: The privilege of buying 36 rolls of toilet paper at once. (At Costco, the 36 roll set is known as the Small Batch Forest to Bathroom Artisanal Pack.)