Yeah, that was embarrassing. When I read it over it was too late to edit. :-) My advanced degree was not in English. My husband’s advance degree is not at issue.
Thanks for the spelling flame, though, it’s great to raise the conversation to this pinnacle!
An excellent article with a lot of great comments!!! Growing up I was told I was middle class, my Mom did not work a job, my parents shared a station wagon. Me and my brothers would would have to ride along to drop Dad off at work, Now it costs me 400.00 a month for cable, internet, and phones. Maybe we spend differently these day. I almost never eat out, but that’s because I once worked in a resturant. I think the structure of how people are paid is whats wrong. Some bankers and CEO’s make millions at the expense of paying the bank tellers and cashiers less. The corporation wants to deleiver to it’s stock holder’s the biggist profits they can, which is done by paying the workers as little as possible. Maybe some sort of profit sharing with the workers should be considered.
The more you have , the higher that bar is set to decide who is rich (as in richer than you) and who isn’t. Of course we had a middle class a hundred years ago; they just weren’t as rich as us.
They didn’t have a house full of electric gadgets, but they still liked gadgetry, especially labor saving devices. Few children had rooms full of toys, but they had some.
The middle class had enough to eat and to invite strangers to the table, and keep a deep pantry.
They owned their homes and generally paid cash for most things. They could afford to hire someone sometimes, but usually did their own work themselves. Maybe they did try to impress with the house.
They had decent clean changes of clothes for whatever it was they had to do. For some, maybe a little extra was invested in the wardrobe.
They had money enough for the doctor and to bury the dead. They didn’t expect to go to hospitals. They didn’t have gym memberships either; they walked a lot. Family transportation was more the norm, and it didn’t cost so much.
There was money for family, church, and charity. Maybe Grandma or Aunt Agnes lived right there in the house, helping in the kitchen and with the children. Who could send her away?
Maybe because I lived so much of my life outside the U.S., or perhaps because I was raised away from the credit mentality, I would never have calculated middle class in the terms originally set forth here.
I know the middle class is getting carved out, but I was a single parent and then a grandmother head of household for so long, just barely making ends meet from month to month. Now that the kids are grown and gone I feel a whole lot richer on the same salary.
I never really thought about the class situation. I think my 1/4 Scottish (side) DNA played a big role in money decisons. My husband and I are fairly young and have zero debt (including the house) and various savings acct’s. I really couldn’t help but invest/save—my DNA made me do it. Don’t know what the Irish, Dutch, German or Scandanvian parts did for me, but the Scottish side paid off…
Lucky for me, I found a great husband who could put up with my frugality and my talk of peak oil and prep’s. I’ve started to dial back the (when the) SHTF talks—sometimes everyone needs a break.
Worldwide, only around 15 pct of human beings earn 10 to 20 dollars a day or more. Costs for various goods, from food to medicine to petrol, are roughly the same as that of the U.S. or higher (esp. petrol). Also, wages are much lower than those of the U.S.
In addition, tax rates in various countries are roughly the same as those of the U.S., but the latter may receive better government service (there are no food stamps or unemployment benefits in some poor countries) and tax cuts.
Finally, the same 15 to 20 pct of the global population is also responsible for over 60 pct of personal consumption.
Given that, I’d say that the middle class consists of those worldwide who receive 10 to 20 dollars a day or more, with a small group earning more than 20 dollars daily and making up the top one percent of the global population. Around 60 pct of the same global population earn only around two dollars daily.
If you are in search of resources for talking points, discussions or e-mails with your friends about the declining American middle class, here are some links:
It’s the Inequality, Stupid
Charts and graphs of income and wealth disparities. Also: “A Harvard business prof and a behavioral economist recently asked more than 5,000 Americans how they thought wealth is distributed in the United States. Most thought that it’s more balanced than it actually is. Asked to choose their ideal distribution of wealth, 92% picked one that was even more equitable.”
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph
Disturbing Statistics on the Decline of America’s Middle Class
“…a good number to start with is 42,400. That’s the total number of factories that the U.S. lost between 2001 and the end of 2009. Put another way, this translates into the outsourcing of 32% of all manufacturing jobs in America.”
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/17/disturbing-statistics-on-the-decline-of-americas-middle-class/
War Against The Middle Class
“…the American middle class was created in the space of just a few years by New Deal legislation that established Social Security and other safety-net programs, implemented a highly progressive taxation of income and estates, supported unions, and raised the floor on wages to narrow the wealth and income gap between the upper and lower economic classes.”
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/167875.html
18 Sobering Facts Which Prove That The Middle Class Is Not Being Included In This “Economic Recovery”
“Even during this time of relative economic stability, the U.S. middle class is still being ripped to shreds. If there are those among your family and friends that are somehow convinced that the U.S. economy is recovering nicely, you might want want to show them the following 18 very sobering facts…”
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/18-sobering-facts-which-prove-that-the-middle-class-is-not-being-included-in-this-economic-recovery
Becoming a Third World Country
“I say ‘finish the process,’ because we are already most of the way there. What distinguishes the Third World from the privileged industrial minority of the world’s nations? Third World nations import most of their manufactured goods from abroad, while exporting mostly raw materials; that’s been true of the United States for decades now. Third World economies have inadequate domestic capital, and are dependent on loans from abroad; that’s been true of the United States for just about as long.”
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2010/02/becoming-third-world-country.html
So Long, Middle Class: Dreams of average Americans dashed by taxes, higher costs and little job security
“25 statistics…”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/so_long_middle_class_GoGvE3xMnYXzZpS2OMGZsI
Elizabeth Warren: Lecture on the Dire Straits of the American Middle Class
Some alarming statistics about middle class wages since the 1970s, the effect of women in the workforce, what middle class families spend most of their money on and why they can’t get ahead, etc. One fascinating point: Since the late 1990s, more families with children file for bankruptcy each year than file for divorce. You don’t hear about it because people hide it from their parents, their siblings, kids, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=akVL7QY0S8A#t=386s
On The Way Down: The Erosion of America’s Middle Class
“While America’s super-rich congratulate themselves on donating billions to charity, the rest of the country is worse off than ever. Long-term unemployment is rising and millions of Americans are struggling to survive. The gap between rich and poor is wider than ever and the middle class is disappearing.”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,712496,00.html
Poet
Various aspects of higher education are under assault, by itself and by outside interests, undermining the future of students and graduate students alike. An in-depth look at a slow death.
Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education
“A few years ago, when I was still teaching at Yale, I was approached by a student who was interested in going to graduate school. She had her eye on Columbia; did I know someone there she could talk with? I did, an old professor of mine. But when I wrote to arrange the introduction, he refused to even meet with her. I won’t talk to students about graduate school anymore,’ he explained. ‘Going to grad school’s a suicide mission.’”
http://www.thenation.com/article/160410/faulty-towers-crisis-higher-education?page=full
Poet
The NIA, Petershiff and Ron Paul all have a bit of a different take on the problem in higher education. Poet, I just have to keep providing the Libertarian viewpoint to your Progressive view points to keep things in balance.
Peter Schiff and Ron Paul have both talked about the problems with government guaranteed student loans in high education driving up the costs of education.
RhareThat’s fine. I agree with some the libertarian view, too. Subsidizing widespread, needs-based (rather than merit-based) for public education is the same as offering money for military contractors or providing an increasing budget for bureaucrats. I think everyone who has a point, has a point. The truth is usually somewhere in the middle.
Poet
There just aren’t enough good-paying jobs out there.
In Italy, they’re called bamboccioni or “big babies” - 59% of those 18 to 34 still live at home with parents.
The same can be said for the U.S. - 85% of 2011 college grads said they’d move back in with parents and 44% of Baby Boomer women report helping adult children financially. A Rutgers University study of a nationally representative sample of over 900 young people who graduated college between 2006 and 2010 found only 53% had full time jobs.
In Spain, they young are protesting…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/down-but-not-out-the-plight-of-spains-lost-generation-2291119.html
Poet
Circumstances change. Countries default or undergo austerity.
The Middle-Class Trapdoor
"When you fall through the trapdoor you tend to lose your belief in capitalist values like hard work and saving. Many Americans still believe that if you work hard and save, by the age of 50 you could be a millionaire. But in Argentina if you worked hard and saved, then at 50 you could be destitute. In Congo, you could be dead of cholera."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7accf8b0-a785-11e0-beda-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1T6UC2G9r
Poet
Middle Class Dropouts (January 11, 2011)
"Nearly one third of Americans who were raised in the middle class dropped down the economic ladder as adults – and that’s before the Great Recession hit."
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/11/news/economy/middle_class_mobility/index.htm
What’s interesting is how the researchers define the middle class as those earning between the 30th and 70th percentile of income. So these one-third of Americans who were raised in the middle class and dropped down… They weren’t able to stay above the 30th percentile of income earners - even as that 30th percentile dropped down in terms of real income and purchasing power, standards were lowered by the researchers’ use of inadequate adjustments for inflation (i.e. they didn’t use shadowstats.com), and more Americans are college-educated as never before.
Poet
"class" is a curious thing to define. If what you are measuring is disposable income, I moved up in class as soon as my kids moved out and graduated from college. Paying off my car and owning my house has helped me too. I may have more disposable income than someone living in one of those big houses on the river and sure have a lot less stress, but using income as an indicator, I may not be in the middle class.
MaryI agree. Disposable income says a lot more than actual income - a paid-for-house and car(s) certainly increases one’s disposable income, making one feel wealthier and providing more economic options in life.
Also, considering federal, state, and other income, sales, and property taxes are higher now than they were in the 1970s, while many expenses are higher now as well… We all have far less disposable income than our parents did back then.
Poet