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This does not agree with wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_class Roughly, today middle class is direct

This does not agree with wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_class Roughly, today middle class is directly related to the amount of discretionary income, not assets.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
From an economic standpoint, the Wikipedia definition is correct. From a sociopolitical angle, especially a cultural one, it’s quite different. Broadly, what constitutes a middle class depends on the society we are observing. Every society has its elites. Some had slaves, some have destitutes. In between is gradation defined, variously, by income, assets, education and lineage. (See the history section; modern/British middle class was originally defined by education.) In America, discretionary income is a good definition because most people have a reasonable expectation of lifelong economic stability. (We gripe when it isn’t improving.) In Europe (and most of the world), the asset test is far more sturdy. And even within America, you see this vary.
- coding123 3y ago
  I fully disagree because if that was the case, it would be highlighted in the wikipedia article. Go ahead and add it, let it go through the rounds of thousands of people trying to be on the same page about it - then I will believe you. I'd rather trust that source that backhanded comments here.
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > it would be highlighted in the wikipedia article Did you read the history and evolution of the term section? “Friedrich Engels saw the category as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry in late-feudalist society. While the nobility owned much of the countryside, and the peasantry worked it, a new bourgeoisie (literally "town-dwellers") arose around mercantile functions in the city.” In the French Revolution, “the new ruling class or bourgeoisie in the new capitalist-dominated societies.” Capital, it’s there in the term. The Stevenson definition, which follows in the next paragraph, cites the “chief defining characteristic of membership in the middle-class [as] control of significant human capital.” This British education-and-skill-derived definition is the basis of the top-of-the-article summary definition, since that human capital produces excess income. Would note that the article appears poorly cited (as many notes on it claim), despite a cursory review of the bibliography shows they’ve covered the basics.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

From an economic standpoint, the Wikipedia definition is correct. From a sociopolitical angle, especially a cultural one, it’s quite different. Broadly, what constitutes a middle class depends on the society we are observing. Every society has its elites. Some had slaves, some have destitutes. In between is gradation defined, variously, by income, assets, education and lineage. (See the history section; modern/British middle class was originally defined by education.) In America, discretionary income is a good definition because most people have a reasonable expectation of lifelong economic stability. (We gripe when it isn’t improving.) In Europe (and most of the world), the asset test is far more sturdy. And even within America, you see this vary.

coding123 3y ago
I fully disagree because if that was the case, it would be highlighted in the wikipedia article. Go ahead and add it, let it go through the rounds of thousands of people trying to be on the same page about it - then I will believe you. I'd rather trust that source that backhanded comments here.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > it would be highlighted in the wikipedia article Did you read the history and evolution of the term section? “Friedrich Engels saw the category as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry in late-feudalist society. While the nobility owned much of the countryside, and the peasantry worked it, a new bourgeoisie (literally "town-dwellers") arose around mercantile functions in the city.” In the French Revolution, “the new ruling class or bourgeoisie in the new capitalist-dominated societies.” Capital, it’s there in the term. The Stevenson definition, which follows in the next paragraph, cites the “chief defining characteristic of membership in the middle-class [as] control of significant human capital.” This British education-and-skill-derived definition is the basis of the top-of-the-article summary definition, since that human capital produces excess income. Would note that the article appears poorly cited (as many notes on it claim), despite a cursory review of the bibliography shows they’ve covered the basics.