The Myth of the Middle Class

Political season is underway in the US (hold you booing and hissing until the end of the post).  This brings out all of the staples of politics: class warfare, immigration, taxes, etc.  One of the things you always seem to see is talk of how Policy X will impact the middle class.  Most people think they are in the middle class, but are they really?

Years ago (who knows how many) a sociologist was probably studying the perceived economic stratification of a country and came up with the idea of the middle class (apparently working class and middle class were originally different things).  It used to be reserved for business professionals, doctors, lawyers, property owners, etc.  Now, that level seems to be called the upper-middle class.  The group of people below that (the lower middle class).  Apparently there are a bunch of variations on the definition of middle class. 

As politician now use the term... if you took a statistics class, this would most likely be seen as about 68% of the population (within 1 standard deviation of the median income).  Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_middle_class references "middle class at around 45-47% of the US.  Of course, another 40% or so may be working class. 

There are problems with the concept of a middle class at least definitionally among them:
* The cost and quality of living vary from place to place within the country (sometimes drastically)
* The lines between working class and middle class are kind of skewed.  In a political context, working class and middle class are sometimes used as synonyms.  Basically it refers to the lower middle class and the working class. 

So does the working/middle class have issues in the future?  You bet they do.  The US enjoys a relatively high standard of living (the lower class here have a "better" standard of living than in many other countries). 


To summarize this rambling (potentially) incoherent post - it's been a while since i posted.... the middle class is some mythical amalgamation of the lower middle class and the working class.  The middle as a construct has long been used to sell political propaganda.  You will hear "the middle class this, the middle class that".  Campaign tax cuts (or perceived increases) are always compared with the middle class.  However, the truth is that the "middle class" is largely undertaxed at the federal level relative to their income levels due to tax deductions and credits.