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If the United States doesn’t address rising inequality, the middle class could start feeling the effects in the form of fewer government services, one expert says.

As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, a law professor at New York University’s School of Law, traveled across the United States talking to a variety of groups, including government officials and people living on the streets.

“What worries me most is that with economic inequality goes political inequality. Political power then looks after its own interests,” Alston says.

Here, Alston explains how inequality could make life harder for the middle class and women in particular.