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This depends on your definition of "decent money". If we wanted a legitimate middle class, the textbook definition of one, the per-capita incomes in such a cla
by zanny 8y ago
This depends on your definition of "decent money".
If we wanted a legitimate middle class, the textbook definition of one, the per-capita incomes in such a class would need to average around 100k for the whole US. Then you would make enough to invest enough to be making an appreciable amount of your money from investments and thus be "middle" class.
The average income is still a bit more than a third that, so the average is still decidedly a member of the working poor.
Money doesn't stop buying happiness until... coincidentally... you start making about enough money to be middle class. I'm not surprised at all that those below that threshold are buying happiness at the expense of future stability or prosperity.
- refurb 8y agoDo tell, what is the textbook definition of middle class? I always assumed it was th middle of the income distribution.
- zanny 8y agoThe preamble of the wikipedia article on middle class espouses why its such a loaded term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_class I'm using the academic definition, where if the upper class earns their wealth through investments and the lower class through labor, the middle is a mix of the two. Humorously even the wikipedia article mentions how the middle class in the US is framed as a political tool of manipulation...