It's been coming at us relentlessly for at least 40 years.

It's been coming at us relentlessly for at least 40 years. The American economy has been undergoing a slow but inexorable sea change and, just as with the proverbial frog in the pot of ever-warmer water, we didn't notice what was happening.

But we did compensate for the increasing temperature of the water.

When we were kids, the standard model family had dad working a job with a company he'd probably stay with his entire career, then draw a pension when he retired. Mom would stay home and raise the kids. When the kids grew up they'd go off to college or take a job in one of the local manufacturing plants and probably do better financially than their teachers in the local public school.

As the years went on, it became more and more difficult to support a family on what dad earned, and so mom joined the workforce. And that helped, for awhile. (In the 1960's only 12% of married women with young children were working for pay; by the late 1990's, 55% were.)

Eventually, even having two earners could not support the standard of living most families had become used to and, little by little, family debt began to grow. (From the late 1990's to 2007, typical household debt grew by a third.)

According to former Labor Sec. Robert Reich: "As long as housing values continued to rise, it seemed a painless way to get more money. Eventually, of course, the bubble burst. That ended the middle class's remarkable ability to keep spending in the face of near stagnant wages."

And so now most of us have come to the realization that the economy is in serious hot water. It's more than just a little recession that we've been used to experiencing every few years. There is serious pain abroad in the land and we're being told that there does not seem to be any expectation of things getting better anytime soon.

The president will be speaking Thursday evening about the crisis, but you won't have any hope of knowing if he's coming up with helpful ideas unless you have looked inside the "big picture" of "economy bad - many unemployed" to understand the parts of the economy that are doing great, and those that aren't. In addition, we need to understand why parts of the economy are in serious trouble.

Stick with me for 2 or 3 days, and you'll be able to give a more intelligent listen to the speech Thursday evening. And, you'll discover that teachers and education play a HUGE part.

(Note: Statistics in this post come from a column by Robert Reich in the NY Times.)