The “middle class” is NOT shrinking.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the shrinking middleclass.  The statistics backing this up focus on income alone.  But the problem with this analysis is that it mid-identifies what “class” means.

 

Let’s take an example of a welfare recipient who buys a lottery ticket and wins $10 million dollars.  Receiving that much money does not make him upper class.  It makes him lower class with a lot of money … temporarily.  Then they spend it and they’re broke again.

 

Which brings me to a more useful definition of “class:” a way of thinking.  What follows are broad generalities, but more useful than defining a class by their income.  The middle class are strivers, even if they have no money.  They are future-oriented, thinking of children, homes and retirement.  They try to put money aside for a “rainy day” and believe in the value of education as a way of getting ahead in life.  They seek to better themselves by working.   The majority of the middle class are risk averse, and while that helps them avoid poverty, it limits the chances they will become wealthy and join the upper class.  And even if they become wealthy enough to be considered upper class, they often retain the attitudes and the frugality of the middle class.

 

Losing your job or your money doesn’t make you a middle class dropout, but a change in your attitude can.   It is possible that drastic changes in circumstances can do this, to go from being a doctor or lawyer to being a vagrant.   It’s also possible, but highly unlikely that winning a Lotto jackpot will make you “upper class,” but the chances are slim because it would require not just money but an entire mental makeover. 

 

One other characteristic that the middle class has is pride in their achievements, whether it’s paying off the mortgage, sending their kids to college or building a business.  The middle class in this country didn’t end up where they were because their parents gave them the means to live the middle class lifestyle without working for it.  That’s why it wasn’t just small business people who were outraged when Obama said “you didn’t build that.”  That was an attack on middle class values.

 

The question can be asked whether the middle class is shrinking, but it can’t be answered by looking at shrinking income.  It can be answered when the recession ends by how many people move off food stamps and other forms of government assistance.  The desire for independence will be the measure of the size of the middle class.

 

It is an American tragedy that we now have a President Obama and a Democrat Party that is actively working to shrink the middle class, because the lower class is much easier to control.