Forum Post: Who is the middle class?
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 1, 2011, 10:34 p.m. EST by OkayAndYou
(20)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Are members of the middle clas.defined by their average earnings, tax bracket, amount of debt, value of government benefits received, political party, race, religion,or sexual orientation?
Someone whose income is derived from 50% + 1 of capital, not wages. In other words, a middle class person does not need a job. They could survive on their investments and/or rental income.
If you work for a living you are Working Class.
So if you have to work, you are working class, but you do not have to be rich to be part of the middle class. You could be part of the lower middle class, like a shop owner or a hotel owner. You are not rich, but you do not have to work for a living.
The wealthy, the 1%, are obvious. Most of these people inherit their wealth, and work in a four letter word.
The poor.
If the poor are the middle class, who are the people who work and live a comfortable life?
The upper class. I'm not one of the people claiming that the 1% are the problem. It's the .1% that have really fucked things up.
How What would you differently if you were a 1 percenter
Nothing. Like I said, It's the .(point)1% that are the problem. They are the ones buying politicians. The 1% are just making money.
Every member of a union gives money to politicians, every member of AARP gives money to politicians, and the majority of small business owners give money to be considered part of the ruling class, or at least not be seen as being against them
i thought the middle class meant those with income of $50,000 to $200,000 honestly who earns that much today, the middle class is disappearing
http://knockknockrevolution.tumblr.com/post/11573860774/why-occupy-wall-street-flyers - help convince your friends to become occupiers by using these talking points!
Real median household income was $49,445 in 2010, so about half of the households in the US (~118 million) make ~$50K and over and about half below. For family households the median is ~$60K. For non-family, it's about $30K.
See Table 1 on page 6 here for more detailed breakdowns:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf
It used to be the self-sufficient people, who worked hard and had enough luxuries to have a nice life.
Now those same people work themselves to death, without many luxuries left.
So it is the people who have enough - satisfied with their place in the world who make up the middle class. The necessities of life for many of us today would be considered luxuries by those considered middle class in the past. It was "keeping up with the joneses" that spelled disaster.
Yes, all of those things and more. Among other potential measures: educational attainment, social status, behavior, preferences, employment status, strength of influence. We humans like to classify things. We also like to eat, sleep, have sex, create, poop, and communicate.
What class did Nikola Tesla belong to when he patented the AC dynamo? When he died broke in a hotel in New York City?
I don't think assigning someone to a class, be classifying everything about them is going to make them better or worse, or more or less successful. I can't be all things to all people, living a good life takes too much time and energy to be every person or be concerned about their strengths and weaknesses that are readily apparent through their demonstrated behavior.
I agree, classifying individuals into groups has little to do with individual successes using any metric of your choosing. But, there is value in both the defining and measurement of, in this case, economic class.
The defining of and measurement of the middle class is not about any one member of the class, but rather the health and wellbeing of the class as a whole (or for certain bad actors, the class as 'a-hole' if you will pardon my weak pun). Furthermore, a single individuals classification is subject to change, sometimes rapidly, over time. So, I can understand your sentiment behind your post.
In my opinion, the American middle class as we define it has become so weakened over the past three or four decades, that it may well become unrecognizable.
NOT gov benefits, NOT political party, NOT race, NOT religion, NOT sexual orientation............I grew up low to middle class....That meant you worked hard, had a home and didn't quite live like Ozzie and Harriet but close
Could you survive, and perhaps flourish in a society that provided few government benefits without requiring servitude to political views, and without concern about the race, religion, or sexual orientation of your family or others. When did all the other stuff become more important than what is important.
It all became important with THIS generation.....I'm a baby boomer....We kept life simple. Family was Number 1. Neighbor helped neighbor. WE didn't go to the government for benefits. I thank my God every day for allowing me to be born when I was. I have my priorities right.
There are a variety of definitions for the middle class. Some definitions describe it by vocation, others by income. The middle class used to be blue collar workers. Back in the day, one did not have to have a college degree to live a comfortable life.