The Tipping Point: Most Americans No Longer Are Middle Class

NPR ^ | 09 Dec 2015 | Marilyn Geewax

[Theoria]

Americans have long lived in a nation made up primarily of middle-class families, neither rich nor poor, but comfortable enough.

This year, that changed, according to the Pew Research Center.

A just-released analysis of government data shows that as of 2015, middle-income households have become the minority. The trend is so firmly established that it may well continue; Americans have experienced "a demographic shift that could signal a tipping point," Pew researchers concluded Wednesday.

Thanks to factory closings and other economic factors, the country now has 120.8 million adults living in middle-income households, the study found. That compares with the 121.3 million who are living in either upper- or lower-income households.

"The hollowing of the middle has proceeded steadily for the past four decades," Pew concluded.

And middle-income Americans not only have shrunk as a share of the population but have fallen further behind financially, with their median income down 4 percent compared with the year 2000, Pew said.

So what exactly does it mean to be a middle-income family?

[Mears]

“Public schools were designed to keep the little people in their places.”

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Unlike private schools that are friends of the “little people” like St. Paul’s,Sidwell Friends,and Deerfield Academy? You have GOT to be kidding.

You seem incapable of answering my original question. How are public schools to blame for the diminution of the middle class since 1971?

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[Original Lurker]

Public schools dumb people so they are incapable of handling the most basic skills required by any job traditionally geared towards historic middle class genre.

Public schools = stupid people, stupid voters..

[Mears]

“Public schools dumb people so they are incapable of handling the most basic skills required by any job traditionally geared towards historic middle class genre.”

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So when we had a strong middle class (50s,60s,70s?) everyone had been private school educated ?????????

Your argument makes absolutely no sense,in fact.it’s stupid.

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[Crucial]

I think you’re right for the majority of Americans history but America doesn’t develop minds like it used to thanks to the public school system and it has been disastrous for middle class workers.

[RipSawyer]

I consider all official figures as just so much smoke.