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I don't know that I've ever thought about my bar, but when I was a kid my dad was making around 80-90k and we considered ourselves low-solid middle class. But t
by c22 4y ago
I don't know that I've ever thought about my bar, but when I was a kid my dad was making around 80-90k and we considered ourselves low-solid middle class. But that was 30-40 years ago, my understanding is that real wages have not kept up with inflation so I'd expect the bars on middle class to be higher today.
Of course we also had the idea that "middle class" was more of an aspirational lifestyle goal and not a moving target. I guess if we just define it accurately as the median of real incomes we can see this range drop alarmingly. Thanks for the perspective.
- falcolas 4y agoSo, a few reference points. In 1980: the median household income was $17.7k. The median income for one individual was $12k. $80k in 1980 is roughly equivalent to $240,000 in 2020. That was top-end middle class, absolute minimum. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1982/demographics/p60-132.pdf https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1982/demographi...
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y agoThat would've been top 4% in income then.
- ryandrake 4y ago$240,000 in Bay Area California is immensely different than $240,000 in the hills of West Virginia. Middle class is more of a lifestyle than a particular income number. It is entirely possible that middle class in a particular city includes people whose incomes are in the top 5% nationally, but still live barely comfortably because their high cost-of-living area. I'd argue median income is irrelevant when it comes to assessing whether or not someone is living a middle class lifestyle.
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y agoThis has some merit currently - but far less so in the past. NYC and The Bay area have always been expensive. But the difference 40-years ago was nowhere near as drastic as it is today.