https://www.aei.org/publication/monday-afternoon-links-28/
More about upward mobility and immigration trends. No need for all the hand wringing!
Where the Middle Class Is Shrinking
21–30 of 180 posts
Re: Where the Middle Class Is Shrinking
#22i'm not sure $125k/year for a family of 3 should really be considered 'upper class'. is 2 working parents barely making 60k each really upper class? i would like to see these numbers for 4x or 5x the median (roughly $250k/year). to me that's really where the delta in income starts to become apparent as manifested in lifestyle choices and accumulated wealth. edit: okay, reading the actual research reveals that pew cal…
If you live in San Jose - no.
If you live in Modesto - yes.
Re: Where the Middle Class Is Shrinking
#23A noteworthy companion piece would be this FiveThirtyEight look into the relationship between Unions, Wages, and the Middle Class:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-dont-miss-manu...
One of the more interesting points I took away is that the Midwest, though facing issues, is one of the last holdouts of a large demographic that might be called Middle Class, often in close correlation with Union presence.
Re: Where the Middle Class Is Shrinking
#24The article makes the extremely common media error (which is also present in the source research, or at least the press release from Pew announcing it -- the article uses "class" pretty exclusively, the Pew release uses "class" in the headline and much of the body, but also uses "income tier" in some places) of conflating income (which is simply a measure of the amount of money received per year) with class (which is…
Thank you for the lucid definition of the middle class.
Re: Where the Middle Class Is Shrinking
#25I used to think that science fiction's popular predictions of a dominant, out of touch urban ruling class casually oppressing subsistence level, serf-like rural populations was just a dystopian fantasy. But the older I get and the more I think about the future and human nature the more I think that may be the way we are headed.
Oh, you mean like we used to do in the past? History repeats itself...
Re: Where the Middle Class Is Shrinking
#26i'm not sure $125k/year for a family of 3 should really be considered 'upper class'. is 2 working parents barely making 60k each really upper class? i would like to see these numbers for 4x or 5x the median (roughly $250k/year). to me that's really where the delta in income starts to become apparent as manifested in lifestyle choices and accumulated wealth. edit: okay, reading the actual research reveals that pew cal…
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Re: Where the Middle Class Is Shrinking
#27i'm not sure $125k/year for a family of 3 should really be considered 'upper class'. is 2 working parents barely making 60k each really upper class? i would like to see these numbers for 4x or 5x the median (roughly $250k/year). to me that's really where the delta in income starts to become apparent as manifested in lifestyle choices and accumulated wealth. edit: okay, reading the actual research reveals that pew cal…
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Re: Where the Middle Class Is Shrinking
#28I'm not quite understanding why the "Lower Class" trends seem to be so flat, while the middle income trends are down. Where are the middle income families going if not the lower income bracket?
Re: Where the Middle Class Is Shrinking
#29i'm not sure $125k/year for a family of 3 should really be considered 'upper class'. is 2 working parents barely making 60k each really upper class? i would like to see these numbers for 4x or 5x the median (roughly $250k/year). to me that's really where the delta in income starts to become apparent as manifested in lifestyle choices and accumulated wealth. edit: okay, reading the actual research reveals that pew cal…
Agreed. We live in Canada. Our household income for a family of 3 is just over $125K and I certainly don't feel like we're "upper class". We can't even afford to buy a house where we live.
I live in a town in the US where the median household income is roughly $36k and the median household size is 3.9. Most adults own their home here.
I know most HN people tend to see urban/suburban areas as the only habitable zones, but come on - you are definitely living high on the hog, it's just hard to see because you choose a location and lifestyle with very high expenses.
Re: Where the Middle Class Is Shrinking
#30i'm not sure $125k/year for a family of 3 should really be considered 'upper class'. is 2 working parents barely making 60k each really upper class? i would like to see these numbers for 4x or 5x the median (roughly $250k/year). to me that's really where the delta in income starts to become apparent as manifested in lifestyle choices and accumulated wealth. edit: okay, reading the actual research reveals that pew cal…
Agreed. We live in Canada. Our household income for a family of 3 is just over $125K and I certainly don't feel like we're "upper class". We can't even afford to buy a house where we live.
It may be worth pointing out that as of right now, CAD $125K is only USD $96.5K, while USD $125K is CAD $162K. There are probably a number of other factors offsetting the exchange rate, but with a family income of >$150K in Canada you're at least pretty well off and in a high percentile, house or not.