Many middle-class Americans grew up certain they would achieve the same or higher level of success than their parents had: by going to college, working many years for one employer and retiring with a pension. But starting as early as the 1970s, that tradition started to erode, says Katherine V.W. Stone, the Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller Professor of Law at UCLA. She argues that the reality today is not long-term attachment, but short-term, episodic employment and other relationships to the job market, be it part-time work or as an independent contractor or an entrepreneur. It is a dramatic change with far reaching implications. (#28622)