What defines the "new" middle class?

[SoCalDem]

Poll question: What defines the "new" middle class?

there used to be some pretty clear benchmarks for middle class.. I dont think those are so clear these days.

When the post war boom came around , some of the benchmarks were:

extra money left over after living expenses
post high school educations
a personal phone line (no more party-lines)
a home of your own (no more living with relatives )
a car of your own
a tv (color made you feel UPPER middle class)
a washing machine (without a hand wringer)
a job that had regular pay increases
a savings account
a yearly vacation
a pension with the job

Some of these things appear to be silly, but in their time, these were things that made people FEEL upwardly mobile, because not everyone HAD them..

Middle class (to me at least) almost seems to be a contrivence..Truly poor people suffer, no matter what policies are in effect, and rich people can usually ride out most blips, but middle classers have always been the ones who were testing the boundaries..grabbing for more more more, and who were willing to take real chances. Middle classers were always over-extended in one way or another, and were the first to really feel changes in policy that weakened their position.

Not many true "middle classers" ever make it higher, but I KNOW that many many of them move silently down the ladder..

"Modern" benchmarks might include: