How should we define the middle class? By ignoring President Obama and Mitt Romney for starters:
In pushing for tax benefits for "middle class" Americans, President Barack Obama defines them as families making less than $250,000 - which is 98 percent of U.S. households. He has also described them as having aspirations of owning a home, having affordable health care and being able to pay for their children's college educations. Republican challenger Mitt Romney has defined middle class as families making less than $200,000. He casts them as hard-working Americans who have been "kicked in the gut" in the weak economy.
That's just political nonsense -- if you're trying to appeal to a group, you want to make it seem as big as possible. That's tapping into the old envy factor --"Hey, maybe I'm just middle class, but so is a guy making $175,000 a year, so it can't be that bad, right? Yeah, dammit, what are you going to do for me now, Barry and Mitt?"
Strictly going by economics, we should probably use the Census Bureau's quintiles. Considering just that middle quintile gives us a middle class earning between $38,000 and $61,000 and that sounds about right. We could go into the quintile just above and just below the middle one a little bit, but it would be too expansive to include all three quintiles except the top and bottom one. That would give us a middle-class salary of $20,000 to $100,000.
But middle class is about more than income. There are such thing as middle-class values that make up a middle-class state of mind. You either feel like part of that group, or you don't. I started out poor but moved up from that (although on some days I have my doubts). I certainly don't feel upper class. So I'm middle class and stuck with it.
Comments
When I was taking Sociology in college, the book described society as the poor, the working class, the middle class and the wealthy. The poor couldn't maintain health and achieve a full lifespan without assistance. The working class was able to support itself. The middle class still had to work, but they were accumulating assets. The wealthy were able to support themselves through inherited wealth.
There were arguments in class that lasted a week. Lots of the book described as working class thought of themselves as middle class.
I decided at that point to avoid using the phrase "middle class" because there's so much potential for misunderstanding. It's like the word "literally", which many people seem to think means figuratively.
The poverty level for a family of 4 is $22,314. I think you'd have to define middle class as higher than that. The rules for food stamps say elderly disabled qualify at up to 165% of poverty level.
What's a 770-square foot house on the south side of Fort Wayne cost? You can buy a decent 2-bedroom rowhome here in Lancaster PA for $60,000. I don't like the income tax at all; I'd prefer a flat gross receipts tax, no deductions, exemptions, or credits. If the government wants to encourage, say, photoelectric panels, they'd have to cut you a check; your taxes wouldn't be altered. And, of course, since corporations are people, they'd pay the same - a tax on income, not on profits. (Obviously the tax rate would be lower.)