Who Exactly Counts as Middle Class?Updated: 2 days 1 hour ago
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Tamara Lytle
Contributor
(Feb. 28) -- Vice President Joe Biden knows what he wants to do to help the middle class, and on Friday he laid out a series of proposals to help them.

But does he -- or anyone -- know what middle class is?

Is it Americans earning less than $250,000 -- who President Obama promised to protect from tax increases?

Is it people making less than $85,000 -- who Biden's Middle Class Task Force would help through several new benefits like tax credits for saving and for child care?

Is it folks earning around the nation's median household income of just over $50,000 a year?

Or is it 72 percent of the country? That's the percentage who told pollsters from the Pew Research Center in 2008 that they considered themselves middle class or lower-middle class?

"Whether they earn $300,000 or $20,000, people think of themselves as middle class," Angela Ledford, political scientist at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y., told AOL News.

Ron Haskins, author of "Creating an Opportunity Society" and scholar at the Brookings Institution think tank, said taking just the center 20 percent of the country could give you the true middle. That would be households earning just under $40,000 to about $62,000, he said. But most people don't look at it that way.

"Nobody wants to be poor," he said, noting that defining yourself that way carries a stigma of failure. "People want to be rich but they don't want to call themselves that."

Defining the middle class as all but the highest 20 percent and the lowest 20 percent of income would wrap in people with incomes from about $20,000 to $100,000. But $20,000 is below the poverty line for some families -- not exactly a middle-class life.

"Middle class is a value term, not an economic term. There's no objective measure," said Curtis Dubay, senior tax analyst at the Heritage Foundation think tank.

The Pew poll showed that 53 percent of Americans called themselves middle class and another 19 percent identified themselves as lower-middle class. About 40 percent of people earning less than $20,000 still called themselves middle class, as did a third of people making more than $150,000.

For politicians, Haskins points out, it doesn't matter who is middle class -- only who thinks they are.

"The demographic is huge -- and they vote," Haskins said.

Ledford, who is writing about social class and politics, agreed. Politicians have figured it out.

"When you use that rhetoric 'middle class,' everyone thinks you are talking about them," she said. "That's the power of it.

The term "working class" has lost its luster and denotes a lack of success now, she said. And high-earning people, except for the old-money set, shy away from calling themselves upper class. "It signals an elitism most people don't want to cop to."

During the recession, many families are having a harder time clinging to a middle-class lifestyle. The housing bust has been particularly tough on the middle class. A populist streak, which bills itself as the tea party movement, has staged demonstrations across the country and includes many middle-class, and especially lower-middle-class, people.

But recessions actually hit the upper class hard because they get more of their income from sources like business income and capital gains, Dubay said. (They also bounce back higher after a recession.)

The 2008 Pew Research Center poll showed that as the median income has fallen, the public has gotten discouraged. About 25 percent of those polled said they had stalled in their tracks and another 31 percent said they have fallen backward in the past five years.

The American tradition of fighting for the average middle-class guy will live on, Haskins said, because the populist appeal resonates with voters.

But that doesn't mean that anyone is going to pin down exactly who those middle-class average Joes are.

"It's basically in the eye of the beholder," Dubay said.
Filed under: Nation, Politics, Money, Top Stories

I'd say who and what constitutes the middle class depends a lot on the national or regional income levels.

I'm pure lower-class trash.

novabrkr said:

Ditto.

I think I'm more like lower, lower middle class. I always thought middle class is people who made $30,000 a year, maybe had a house and a couple of cars, not that anyone told me that it's just the image I had.

egyptkizzee said:

It also really depends on the standard of living where you are.

$30,000 a year would not buy you a house and a couple of cars where I am.

As far as I'm concerned, you are all first-class.

Though retirement is around the bend... I can see it.

I'm working class because if I/we didn't work, we'd be homeless and without health insurance.

TD3 said:

If that's what "working class" means, then just about everyone I know is.

CarrieMpls said:

Yep, that's my point middle class, upper middle class, upper calls, I mean...

I don't even have to check the local economy to know I'm poor.

If you can't afford to eat-out more than once or twice a month, you're working class.

If you can afford to eat-out more often than eating home-cooking, you're middle class.

If you can eat-out without actually having to pay the tab, you're upper class.

GirlBrother said:

It never fails to amaze me how often rich people get shit for free.

meow85 said:

so NOT FAIR

If I made $20,000 I would certainly not call myself middle class

I feel like I am actually poor, though my earnings do not indicate that. But I barely make enough to get by. I have no idea how people get by on less, AND support families.

NDRU said:

I think about that quite a bit, but then I realize you get by because you have to. And I HAVE gotten by with less. I worked 2 part-time, just over minmum wage jobs when I was 19 and got my first apartment. I spent a summer unemployed (but didn't get any benefits) and lived off of the bit of savings I had, selling my plasma and the kindness of friends who would feed me from time to time. I've worked my way up to where I am now, and I wouldn't consider myself wealthy by any stretch, but I know there are families of 4 or more who don't earn as much as I do. It reminds me how fortunate I am.

Hmm.. funny how many class *class* (excuse the pun) by their salary only.
Class isn't about what you earn.. I would say its more about your manners, where you are from, how you are brought up, how you act, your family etc
Hmm nowadays it seems it is about what car you drive, how big your LCD/plasma tv is.. which out rules the whole class system

you cannot *buy* class!
(imo)

CarrieMpls said:

very well said. I have earned more than I do now ...I think I had a mid life crisis very early in my life and needed some changes. I will eventually make what I was making but I went with a whole different path in life. I am SOOOOO much happier because of it. Money isn't always everything. But, I know I will eventually be back where I was with my income

CarrieMpls said:

I have lived off of less, too, but there was always something I neglected in order to do so. I didn't buy clothes, didn't go to the dentist, abused credit, mooched off others.

Living like I do now, I am self sufficient, but I have cut back so much I really don't see how I could get by on much less. Of course I could handle a little less, but add a kid to the equation?

It really seems unfair sometimes that some people have so much while others have so little. And I don't include myself in the "so little" category, I am more fortunate than many people in this world

NDRU said:

Well, yeah, you do without. I guess my point was, we can all get by with a lot less, if we have to.

But yes, I agree, it seems unfair.

When I look at how much (er, little) I make. I'm surprised I can actually afford anything at all. I wouldn't consider myself middle class, but I guess I'm also not part of the working poor. I don't struggle but I'm also not getting any further ahead. I need to make some real changes to be able to do that.

But also...my parents are wealthy so I'm never really stuck in a bad financial situation. I know I have it a lot better than a lot of people have it just because I have family who is always there for me if I really need help.

JustErin said:

But imo I wouldnt say class is solely a monetary thing..

REDFEATHERS said:

I think that whole thing is different in England, being a way older society

REDFEATHERS said:

But that's what this article is talking about specifically, monetary status.

ZombieKitten said:

Yes i agree.. there are some pompous upper class ppl who may have no money, but they are still classed as upper class - not judged by their income at all..
and you can get some rich shall I say *commoners* who you just could not say are upper class.. I thinknits more a family/generation thing back from years ago

REDFEATHERS said:

and there seems to be some animosity between the posh and the commoners too, so it's not like being upper class is necessarily something the lower classes even aspire to.

ZombieKitten said:

Unless they are doing business together

I wish I could find the link, but there was an excellent last year about this very topic. In a nutshell they didn't define any class based solely on what you make, but rather on what you can afford to spend.

Adisa said:

good point

ZombieKitten said:

hmm.. maybe it is different over here..
I know for sure you will NOT get into certain places, clubs, bars, groups solely on what you have in your bank account and more on status and how you hold yourself,.. etc