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discussion

1. The author of the piece is Richard Reich. Richard Reich is a professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of California at Berkeley and he published this piece in 2014. I believe the original audience is actually for everyone. It is used as an informational piece to educate everyone on the financial disparities that plagues the lower class, and how the upper class can assist.

2. I believe what motivated Mr. Reich is the need to shed light on what is currently going on. I do not believe, and it wasn't alluded to within the piece that any one specific event triggered him to create this. I feel that the need for change helped bring this piece to life more than anything.

3. The overall message behind this piece is to highlight the lack of support that is being provided to the lower class, and how little has been done to actually fix it. Many meetings and conferences have happened to discuss the issues, but the solution always divides the room into opposing sides. He makes these points specifically in paragraph 2 and 23, but the entirety of the article is used.

4. The author uses various sources and statistics to get his points and claims off. The most persuasive elements that I gravitated to were the analytical points used. Quantifying the topics made them easier to comprehend.

5. The article is structured from top to bottom with supporting elements sprinkled from beginning to end. There was no room left with "filler" information. I believe he did this to make his piece as informative as possible.

6. This article, like the others, all place their focus on the poverty levels that have struck the countries middle/lower class and places an emphasis on listing resources that mat be used to limit this.