The vanishing middle class.

[LargoWinch]

From the NY Post no less (although it is a very superficial piece, so NY Post it is):

July 11, 2009
NEW YORK CITY'S MIDDLE CLASS IS VOTING WITH THEIR FEET

America's middle class is disappearing.

The very Americans the Obama administration is hoping will lift the economy out of recession are facing epic challenges.

As a result of a sizeable drop in home values, along with over-extended credit and rising unemployment, as many as one in four of the 31 million middle class families are in danger of dropping a rung on the economic ladder, statistics show.

That's as many as eight million families in the last nine years, with a median income of $80,000 for a family of four, according to public-policy group Demos.

...

Full Article here.

[don]

Re: The vanishing middle class.

See the post, "Everything's Coming Up Roses", for a start on the answer

[Verrocchio]

Re: The vanishing middle class.

I don't have more recent data, but before the Great Recession/GDII, that is, in 2004, the top 130,000 households had taken 7% of the household earnings -- up from 2% in 1973 (Steven Lagerfeld, The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2007). Think this would have something to do with the shrinking middle class? :rolleyes:

[vinoveri]

Re: The vanishing middle class.

Did I misread this?
There's only 31MM families in the middle class?
Maybe I understanding of the middle class is wrong.
Does anyone know the spread? what's upper, and what's lower, etc?

[nero3]

Re: The vanishing middle class.

I can't see how there is a way to fix the problem of the declining middle class.
It seems impossible. Running the printing press will only once again, increase the differences, and squeeze working families even more.

[santafe2]

Re: The vanishing middle class.

From the NY Post no less (although it is a very superficial piece, so NY Post it is):

6 kids, are they kidding? Better get out of NY and get back on the farm where they can put them to work...:rolleyes:

[santafe2]

Re: The vanishing middle class.

Did I misread this?
There's only 31MM families in the middle class?

Middle class is a term often used like the term "good" or "normal"...it means a lot of different things depending on how you define it. From Wiki:

The American middle class is an ambiguously defined social class in the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class

[nero3]

Re: The vanishing middle class.

How to increase the middle class?

I think it's a really interesting dilemma.

Taxing the rich is only a drop in the sea. With the US as a service sector ,and empty shell, I just can't see how it can be done.

[kspencer]

Re: The vanishing middle class.

I'll point out we've increased the middle class a couple of times in our past. The most recent, done in the 1930s, was by cutting the upper class. No, let's be more accurate. It happened by taking money from the rich.

I expect it'll happen again. The question in my mind is whether it's done by the book or by the sword. We'll try the book - laws and politics - first. Hopefully that'll be enough, just as it was last time.

[nero3]

Re: The vanishing middle class.

I'll point out we've increased the middle class a couple of times in our past. The most recent, done in the 1930s, was by cutting the upper class. No, let's be more accurate. It happened by taking money from the rich.

I expect it'll happen again. The question in my mind is whether it's done by the book or by the sword. We'll try the book - laws and politics - first. Hopefully that'll be enough, just as it was last time.

I just don't understand how it can happen now, with the weak manufacturing base. It seems the dollar must go lower, and the US must become more competitive. Is it possible to build a middle class and still achieve that? I doubt it. It rather seems china can import more and export less, and leverage up their economy, thus build a middle class, while the US middle class goes into even further decline.

[don]

Re: The vanishing middle class.

There's potential here. Think of an America where hamburger flippers and WalMart checkers are paid well enough to be happy mowing the lawns around their affordable McMansions and spending like teenage girls at the mall.

This is where Philip K. Dick comes in.