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It's an interesting argument that I've heard many times in different ways. I'm inclined to think there's some truth to it. But when you look at trends, income
by bhntr3 14y ago
It's an interesting argument that I've heard many times in different ways. I'm inclined to think there's some truth to it.
But when you look at trends, income is stagnant, wages are stagnant AND measures of social mobility are low as well as studies that show a lack of evidence for second and third generation immigrants being significantly better off.
That plus the (admittedly anecdotal) evidence that single earner lower middle class families who own their homes and cars are much rarer seems to indicate that the shrinking middle class is a reality (measured mostly by some vague "quality of life" metric.)
So it's complicated. The most compelling argument I've heard is that necessities are getting more expensive relative to general inflation (gas, food, housing) On the other hand, what you get for your money is much more advanced now technologically. So it's not like we're strictly speaking worse off even if our relative purchasing power has decreased.
- jeffdavis 14y ago"It's an interesting argument that I've heard many times in different ways." I wasn't making an argument; merely asking for numbers and explaining why the existing numbers may be deceptive. "a lack of evidence for second and third generation immigrants being significantly better off." Do you have some numbers to back that up? I'd like to see them broken down by country of origin, if possible.
- bhntr3 14y agoI guess I was inferring a counter argument to "the middle class is declining" which goes something like "the middle class is changing and not the same types of people now that it was then." Young people studying longer, settling down later, more immigration, etc. I went on a quest to find the numbers years ago and those were the conclusions I came back with. The numbers are messy. I wish I had them or remembered what I read to form those conclusions. I'm actually drawn to this question because I thought of trying to make a website that drew together the data with visualization and statistical analysis. If you find the data please being it back and share it. EDIT: Actually the Wikipedia article on social mobility in the US is a pretty good start. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socio-economic_mobility_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socio-economic_mobility_in_the_...