El final de la clase media: Los jóvenes que vivirán peor sus padres

The middle class no longer exists. Or, at least, not as we knew it. From eels to lunchboxes, from owned apartments to rented rooms, from the promise of social advancement to the mirage of university degrees that no longer guarantee anything, this book examines the decline of a model that gave stability and hope to entire generations. Through real stories--the engineer who cannot become independent, the expatriate executive who returns with a reduced salary, the family that survives on credit--and a lucid analysis of the economy, education, and the labor market, it starkly shows the erosion of that middle ground that sustained our democracies. But this is not just a story of loss: it also dares to point the finger at those responsible--politicians, extractive elites, an outdated education system--and to ask the uncomfortable questions: what does "living well" mean today? Is it possible to maintain a life project with stagnant wages and unaffordable housing? What place is there for merit, effort, and social mobility? With an agile, ironic, and deeply researched style, Ana Samboal completes the mosaic with decisive chapters: precarious work becoming the norm, the trap of debt and easy credit, the role of technology in social polarization, and the crisis of values affecting families and businesses. This book is an uncomfortable mirror: it forces us to look squarely at what we have lost and what we could still save. It is an urgent call to those who still believe that the middle class was--and is--the heart of our coexistence.