Shrunken middle class

[Panich52]

The middle class has literally shrunk. NYT: "In the late 1960s, more than half of the households in the United States were squarely in the middle, earning, in today's dollars, $35,000 to $100,000 a year. Few people noticed or cared as the size of that group began to fall, because the shift was primarily caused by more Americans climbing the economic ladder into upper-income brackets. But since 2000, the middle-class share of households has continued to narrow, the main reason being that more people have fallen to the bottom. At the same time, fewer of those in this group fit the traditional image of a married couple with children at home, a gap increasingly filled by the elderly."

http://caf.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=MvYxVmwDuXIffnznJqdzXx23ndgk1zqb

[Bucky]

1. By what stretch of the imagination $35k/yr a middle class salary?

At less than $3000/month gross, that's probably less than $2000/month take home pay. If it's a single parent with a couple of kids, and you factor in health insurance, car insurance, rent or housing for a three bedroom apartment that is nearly half of monthly income, and enough food to eat at home, but never go out to eat... this one income is NOT enough to putanything away for retirement.

That's not middle class. That's subsistence.

No room for clothing in that budget, by the way, so I hope it's a family of nudists. Ah, the American dream.

[Panich52]

2. $35K is low f/ mid-class. Unless you're single

Single person would be reasobably comfortable, maybe even a couple, but you're right, can't easily raise a family on that amount.

[GummyBearz]

3. Also depends on location

$35K per year in South Dakota is quite a bit different than $35K in in san francisco/los angeles/new york

[moondust]

4. When a small group

of primarily white males can sit back in padded chairs under corporate air conditioning and make themselves and their Wall Street cronies filthy rich by ordering that hundreds and hundreds of employees be undercompensated and/or laid off--things are not going to turn out well for an awful lot of talented, hard-working people.

How's it going, Mitt? Waltons? Kochs?