Disappearing middle class is reshaping northern Michigan (Bridge Magazine)

Richard and Patricia Dolland spent countless warm summer days and cold winter nights in their rustic cottage in northern Michigan. Every few weeks, they’d drive three hours north from their Macomb County home to the cabin that Richard himself built 40 years ago south of Grayling. They spent at least a week there each summer nestled among the pines. In the winter, it was home base for snowmobiling. For Richard, now 75, it was a haven from his job managing a small factory that made parts for the auto industry. Far from luxurious, the cabin was a gathering place for family and friends — typical of the thousands of unassuming cottages dotting the northern Michigan landscape. “We’d get up there,...