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More Americans are breaking into the upper middle class

wsj.com

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Re: More Americans are breaking into the upper middle class

#11

Post by hyperhello »

materialpoint wrote: post #8

"For the first decade of his career, he lived in an apartment and worried about paying for vacations. Then, in his early 30s (...)" ... here is America, without paid vacation guaranteed by law since the government does not truly care about the middle or working class. It's amazing how serious media can write articles about economy, while the blatant obvious deficits slip right by their nose..

The blatant obvious deficits are where the money is made. The articles are written to help you focus either on pie in the sky or on meaningless stock jitters.

Re: More Americans are breaking into the upper middle class

#13

Post by shipman05 »

tdb7893 wrote: post #6

The headline is a remarkably rosy spin on it when the subheading is "Research shows that ranks of higher earners have grown markedly over last 50 years, while lower rungs of middle class have shrunk". The article is behind a paywall but it makes it sound like inequality is increasing.

That's the whole point. When people hear "the middle class is shrinking" they intuitively believe people are slipping down a rung and joining the ranks of the working poor. The data doesn't back that up. The middle class is shrinking, but more people are moving up a rung than falling down one.

Which isn't to say that you're wrong about wealth inequality increasing. The share of wealth controlled by the ultra wealthy IS increasing, but the specifics of how that is playing out are nuanced and, at times, counter-intuitive.

Re: More Americans are breaking into the upper middle class

#16

Post by spwa4 »

ljsprague wrote: post #14

[flagged]

Yeah that's something you fail to see until you visit the third world or a communist hellhole for the first time. And for mostly the same reason: the government is a dictatorship captured by a few individuals.

The inequality in Geneva or New York is MASSIVE. It's a problem. But it's absolutely pitiful compared to inequality in New Delhi or Havana. Plus it's what you keep hearing from ex-Soviets: that apparatchiks and normal people had the same money, but DIDN'T have access to the same stores. Guess which ones had stocked shelves?

The problem communism creates, ironically, is massive inequality.

Re: More Americans are breaking into the upper middle class

#19

Post by nyeah »

shipman05 wrote: post #13
tdb7893 wrote: post #6

The headline is a remarkably rosy spin on it when the subheading is "Research shows that ranks of higher earners have grown markedly over last 50 years, while lower rungs of middle class have shrunk". The article is behind a paywall but it makes it sound like inequality is increasing.

That's the whole point. When people hear "the middle class is shrinking" they intuitively believe people are slipping down a rung and joining the ranks of the working poor. The data doesn't back that up. The middle class is shrinking, but more people are moving up a rung than falling down one. Which isn't to say that you're wrong about wealth inequality increasing. The share of wealth controlled by the ultra wealthy…

But, Doctor, the data does back that up. The US middle class is shrinking, and most of the shrinkage is on the low end. There's no mystery about this, only potential for distractions.
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