I was listening to The Takeaway on a local NPR station today, and they were having an interesting discussion of what constitutes the middle class. The callers were mostly those who considered themselves members of the middle class. They defined themselves as middle class for a variety of reasons — mostly income and possessions. But the discussion got me to thinking about how lower-income Americans define being middle class. I think this important because being middle class is the American dream. Low income families want the white picket fence outside of the home they own. They want the two car garage with two cars inside. They want the suburban dream. Right? Or, is that what I – the middle class young professional daughter of two middle class parents – think they want? Maybe their view of middle class is different?
I don’t know if their view of what constitutes being middle class is different. I don’t even really know how to concretely define what middle class is in 2010, so I thought I would try to find out what you think.
What do you think being middle class means? Is it defined by possessions or income level or the type of job you have or something else?
I feel that middle class can be defined as having enough income to purchase car insurance, health insurance and contribute to savings and/or retirement account. I define it in this way since I’ve had lower paying jobs where income was used solely for paying bills and nothing was left for emergencies.
I don’t think middle class can be defined by having possessions as all classes have possessions, but place different values on them.
I do feel that the middle class is shrinking as people are laid off of work, baby boomers begin to retire and there are not enough people to feel the key positions.