Defining the Middle Class
Jeffrey Hill | Thu, Dec 20th, 2007 | Category: Commentary | Tags: jeffrey hill, suburbs, average, salary, defining the middle class, what is the middle class, chicago tribune, middle class
I recently read this article in The Chicago Tribune concerning the ambiguous definition of the “middle-class” and how freely the term is tossed around in conversation, the media and in politics. The article cites a number of studies, including one by the U.S. Census Board. The combination of results placed the “middle-class” mark between 40,000 and 100,000 dollars of income per year, per family. As you can see by these “scientific” results, the divide between poverty and wealth is growing … or at least the idea of it is.
The article leaves me with the same question it poses in the opening paragraph – What is the middle-class? Is it a specific number? Is it really a margin of income?
I decided to ask the people in my community if they could describe what the middle-class was in three sentences or less. Most of the immediate responses were “hmm.” After a minute of thought, the guy behind the counter at my local convenience store replied, “I guess … people around here.” He’s referring to my hometown of Pitman, New Jersey. According to the 2000 census, the median family income for Pitman was $49,743. This is halfway off from Sociologist Leonard Beeghley’s identification of $97,000 as a typical middle class family.
Sociologists love to give names to everything. Some of them have officially split the middle-class into even more classes! Fun! These include the “professional middle-class,” the “lower middle-class,” the “working class,” the “vernacular middle-class,” etc. Each with its own name and comprehensive definition backed by statistics, graphs, and bullshit.
A teenager loitering outside of the convenience store gave an interesting answer to my question, “People who thought American Beauty was a great movie. People who watch Jeopardy. People who have broken household appliances.” He was being sarcastic, but I think out of all the answers I receieved, it was the most honest and thought-provoking assesment. Is “middle-class” a cultural identity based on a way of life? Is “middle-class” possesion oriented? Do the numbers really mean anything? What is the “war on middle-class”? Does it exist?
Jeffrey Hill is News Editor for Access Intelligence, a business and technology information firm, web editor for Next American City and a freelance writer based in Washington D.C.
Dave Steele
Thu, Dec 20, 2007 at 1:54pm
This is very interesting. I live in a neighborhood that is known locally as home to part of the city’s African American middle class. My neighbors own their homes, and have most of the trappings of middle class life. But I would suspect that if you asked folks in my neighborhood the same questions you’d probably get some different answers. They would definitely feel that they are “middle class,” but they would probably express a sense of insecurity about being able to maintain this standard of living for the long term. I think a lot of the Black middle class in this country feels a lack of permenance in their situation. Sure, they’re doing OK now, but they might lack a generational safety net to catch them if the going gets tough.
I would say my neighbors define “middle class” not so much in terms of stuff or cultural trappings, but in terms of cultural mores like working hard, staying on the straight and narrow, and getting an education.
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Lonny Stern
Thu, Dec 20, 2007 at 2:25pm
This discussion of what it means to be “rich” in America in this Washington Post article bears some consideration. Certainly, two income households could find themselves bringing in more than $200,000 a year, especially if both partners are professionals. This article brings up some interesting questions: Is a person rich if s/he makes more than $97,000 a year? After all, the median HOUSEHOLD income in 2006 was $48,200. Would your answer change if that person lived in San Francisco,CA or Temple, TX? Would your answer change if that person owned a yacht, owned a second home, was paying for a prolonged hospital stay, or was putting kids through college? How do we make these distinctions between rich, upper middle class, and middle class in America? Where does our median household ($48,200/yr) fall? And, how do we make sure our tax policy encourages all earners to save for their futures?
Jeffrey Hill in Washington, D.C.
Thu, Dec 20, 2007 at 4:10pm
This is all very good discussion. If we look at specific areas of the country, yes, the definition of rich and poor are varied. I’m from New Jersey. North Jersey rich and South Jersey rich are completely different ideas of wealth. The examples are that close. I believe it has a lot to do with land value and the local economies.
“how do we make sure our tax policy encourages all earners to save for their futures?” - In my opinion, this is the most important issue in the upcoming election.
Here’s another topic to discuss: The difference between the American middle-class and the British middle-class. Is there a stronger middle-class community in the U.K.? If so, why?
tmchale
Sat, Dec 22, 2007 at 12:11am
The feeling that we’re all middle class is an important part of American cultural identity, as opposed to Western European countries where political parties rally around the idea that inequality has increased to unacceptable levels and it’s really “us” versus “them.” We like to pretend this is a meritocracy. Class is really irrelevant in that context… we’re all just trying to get ahead, right?
Political rhetoric from both major US parties argues that their vision helps the “middle class”—for the Bush administration the “middle class” includes the top 1% of people who have to pay the estate tax (including the mythical family farmers and “small” business owners who wish to leave $2 million to their children).
But certainly the US has a middle class as opposed to countries like Brazil where 2% of the population is obscenely wealthy and the other 98% live in poverty.