Who actually is the Middle Class?

By LindaBeth

(See here for part 1.)

So who is the middle class?

McCain and Palin have a conception of who the middle class, "average" Americans are. Their statements struck me because their conception does not at all correspond to the reality of Americans' lives.

The Tax Foundation has an excellent paper on income distribution in the United States that sheds light on the "middle class" definition problem, and the income statistics might shock you. First, the paper very rightly points to the fact that "middle class" is an imprecise, political term, meant to appeal to those people who "feel" they are middle class, average Americans, not the statistical average or median income earners. As such, middle class becomes a political term that serves as shorthand for not-millionaires and the not-poor; indeed, those individuals are invisible in American politics. It indicates policies that are supposed to be for "regular" Americans, regular being defined as not uber-rich and not for "welfare dependents."

Almost 80% of people see themselves as middle class and only 2% of people see themselves as "upper class." So clearly, many Americans don't recognize their economic privilege in defining themselves as "average" when they are much better off than most. Yet these folks are feeling a financial strain in our tough economic times. I'm not denying their plight, but if so many Americans see themselves as financially burdened, average Americans, when they are in fact not at all average, then an awful lot of people have a warped conception of what the plight is of the actual middle class, working class and working poor!

To bring this point home, let's look at who actually is middle class, or more accurately put, middle income. There are two different ways that economists describe middle income: either the middle 20% (the 3rd quintile), with 40% higher (4th and 5th quintiles) and 40% lower (1st and 2nd quintiles), or as the middle 60%, with 20% higher and 20% lower.

According to the 2006 U.S. Census, among all households (married, single, with and without children),

Median income among all U.S. households in 2006 was $48,201. The middle 20 percent ranged from about $38,000 to $60,000; and the middle 60 percent—the "Baucus middle class"—stretched from about $20,000 to $97,000 [...] The range of the middle 20 percent [of married households] was approximately $57,000 to $83,000, and the range of the "Baucus middle class"—the middle 60 percent—was about $35,500 to $122,000. This $122,000 figure, then, represents the highest possible income that a married household could accurately call middle income, or "middle class."

By contrast, for all single households, the middle 20 percent of incomes fell between $22,000 and $36,000 with a median of $29,000. That's less than half of the median for married households. The middle 60 percent stretched from about $12,000 to $60,000. (emphasis added)

Did you catch that? Half of married households earn less than $69,716; half of single people earn less than $29,000. The most you can earn as a married household and call yourself middle class is $122,000; the most you can earn as a middle class single person is $60,000. If you make over those incomes, you are earning more than 80% of those in your household type. And we had a presidential candidate suggesting that married households earning over $250,000 weren't rich? And that singles making over $200,000 weren't either? Say what?! Saying those incomes are not rich, and Palin suggesting she is middle class, makes a mockery of the actual middle class, not to mention makes the working class and the poor completely invisible, as if they don't exist.

Regarding Sarah Palin's middle-class-ness: clearly her income puts her outside of what qualifies as middle income. But from a sociological perspective, class isn't all about income; rather, it includes wealth (net worth), education, and prestige. And with her college education, job as governor with associated prestige and power, as well as her $1 million+ net worth, she is clearly and upper-middle class American.

Next parts: socialism, poverty, and the right's rhetoric on those who pay no income tax.

(Cross-posted to Speak Truth to Power.)