NPR recently had a show about the middle class, asking people to define what the term means to them. Al Shapiro, of “All Things Considered,” asked people in New York what it means to be in the middle class.
The answers were widely varied, as you might expect. One person said:
“You’re struggling, like, paycheck to paycheck, and you’re going, ‘Oh shoot, I want to go into H&M, but you know what, I’ll do it next week when I get paid again.’ “
But another person in the city answered very differently. He described middle class by saying:
“To be middle class means that I never have had to make a budget; I have never wanted for anything. I pretty much did what I wanted.”
Although Americans are a little bit unclear on what defines the middle class, economists are more exact.
- Individuals- Annual income between $24,173 and $72,521
- Family of two- Annual income between $34,186 and $102,560
- Family of three- Annual income between $41,869 and $125,609
- Family of four- Annual income between $48,347 and $145,041
- Family of five- Annual income between $54,053 and $162,161
These figures represent incomes that are between 66 percent and 200 percent of the nation’s medium annual income for the given year.
The Pew Center also shows that the middle class is in fact shrinking, based on data from the past 45 years. In 1970, the percentage of combined household income earned by the middle class was 62 percent. In 2014, however, the middle class earned only 43 percent of that income.
Data shows that every decade has shown a decrease in the percentage of families in the middle class. For the first time, middle class families did not make up the majority of households.
It is clear that the income gap in increasing in this country. Nearly half of the combined income of the entire United States went to the upper income category in 2014, compared to 29 percent in 1970.
Economists agree that in order for an economy to thrive and grow it is essential to have a strong middle class, which is yet another reason why the upcoming presidential election is so important to our future.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
