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What metrics are you observing that lead you to conclude that the American middle class has met its demise?
by 11thEarlOfMar 5y ago
What metrics are you observing that lead you to conclude that the American middle class has met its demise?
- mdorazio 5y agoThere have been many articles written on this topic. I think Pew paints a pretty good picture of the overall decline [1]. [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/09/the-ame...
- 11thEarlOfMar 5y agoThanks. According to Rand[0], the % of households in the middle class has shrunk, primarily because they are moving into the upper class. While technically, yes, the middle class is shrinking, it's not for a negative reason (from the perspective of the middle class themselves). Overall, American households are increasingly wealthy, class divisions notwithstanding. [0] https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/05/most-americans-consider-themselves-middle-class-but.html https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/05/most-americans-consider-th...
- matthewdgreen 5y agoI don’t think that’s really a fair summary of the article and it elides many of the nuances, such as the fact that the “increase in wealth” you cherry-pick is due to demographic changes (workers getting older and thus having higher salaries) whereas the other measures in the article all point to declines. But more to the point: does this summary reflect your actual experience?
- 11thEarlOfMar 5y agoThe word that caught my attention was demise. It doesn’t square if you believe that the US is seeing record employment and record stock market returns, as more than 50% of US households have stock-based investments. I was asking, and still hoping to see, the metrics and data that point to demise of the US middle class.