Posted on 12/09/2015 3:04:07 PM PST by 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?
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
God, ain’t public schools nifty.
(reap what you sow)
Good news to the Progressives.
Destruction of the petit bourgeoisie has always been their first order of business.
trickle down poverty
wait until the next round of obamacare premiums hit
Congratulations, Obama and the democrat party.
I used to be. And then something happened 7 years ago.
The whole job market changed.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/09/gop-leaders-silent-on-refugee-funding-in-omnibus/
All the more reason to “Make America Great Again”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t subscribe to the “class” meme anyway. Since people are economically and educationally mobile, such pigeonholes are worthless and are merely tools to stoke political coals.
Sure, but the downtrend didn’t start with Obama.
This is what 30 years of reckless GOP/Democrat destructive foreign and domestic polices have wrought.
They have decimated middle America while they all got wealthy.
+1
He’s done everything possible to advance it.
Isn’t socialism wonderful. /sarc
The “former” middle class voters need to be reminded again and again that this happened under the watch of Obama and the Democrats.
Obama may have improved the unemployment numbers by moving people to the disabled rolls and other chicanery, but those changes resulted in people moving from the middle class rolls to the poverty rolls.
But Pew also points out that Americans have all gained. That is, the median income has risen 34 percent since 1970.
So they aren't using any objective standard to define middle class, but simply middle income in relation to other peoples paycheck. So if a multimillionaire lives in a neighborhood with billionaires he is "lower class". A more rational way to define "middle class" is by traditional standards. If you have income that allows you to pay your bills, own a house and pay the mortgage, educate your kids and save for retirement, you are middle class. The amount of income you need to do that varies greatly by location. They consider under 42k lower class, but in many places you can live well for less than that. In others you need 2 or 3 times that to be objectively "middle class".
Bull sh*t
What happened is the USA imported an underclass.
Underclasses make the rich really rich and stay poor (and keep others poor by competing for entry level jobs).
The middle class is about the same, just a smaller part of the whole.
So has the GOP. It’s not like they have reduced .gov over the years or held illegal immigration in check and other similar trends.
He promised a complete transformation of America.
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