The Shrinking of the Middle Class
By: Carter Wolf
The shrinking middle class is a phrase that is thrown around constantly, whether in professional articles in newspapers and magazines, or at the dinner table with your fun uncle jeffrey. It’s said with hush tones and scared faces, almost like talking about satin or the end of the world, however what does the shrinking of the middle class actually mean.
First, we must define the middle class. The middle class is not a set thing, as it changes from place to place. States with higher average income will have a higher income definition of the middle class, however other places like Mexico might have a lower middle class definition. Second, we must understand that the middle class isn’t shrinking everywhere, as according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), places like Ireland and France actually have had an increase in the middle class, increasing by 3.9% and 3.2% respectively. Other places however, such as Sweden and Germany, have had large decreases of the middle class, 7.4% and 5% respectively.
In the US, the middle class has shrunk quite significantly, about 12% since 1970 according to the Pew Research Center, and this led to a larger increase in upper class than lower class citizens. You might think that this is good, this means that there are more rich people in the US, and we are less poor. Technically yes, however class inequality isn’t very good. Even though there is a higher population of richer people, which can be seen as good, then lower services for middle class people aren’t as prominent. Very similar to the gilded age of the late 1800s in America, there was a huge class divide between rich and poor, so the rich had all of the power, and everyone only cared about the upper class, forgetting about the lower class and much less prominent middle class.
Class equality is very important for society to include all members of life, and the shrinking of the middle class can be bad, but also the growth of the middle class at the expense of shrinking of the upper class can be as bad as the other way around.
Works Cited
“America's Shrinking Middle Class: A Close Look at Changes Within Metropolitan Areas.” Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project, Pew Charitable Trusts, 30 May 2020, www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/05/11/americas-shrinking-middle-class-a-close-look-at-changes-within-metropolitan-areas/.
Frankenfield, Jake. “Which Income Class Are You?” Investopedia, IAC, 14 Sept. 2020, www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0912/which-income-class-are-you.aspx.
Reeves, Richard V. “The Condition of the Middle Class Matters More than Its Size.” Brookings, Brookings, 15 Apr. 2019, www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-condition-of-the-middle-class-matters-more-than-its-size/.
OECD (2019), Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/689afed1-en
This is a really interesting topic. I feel like how I've always thought about classes is that in order for someone to be in the Upper class, someone has to be in the lower class, but its not as simple as that I see. I look at the shrinking of the middle class as a bad thing in general though, i would assume its better to have more people at the average rather than higher and lower.
ReplyDeleteWhen you talk about the gilded age in America, you say that the rich had all of the power. Is that just financially, with taxes and other things, or does it include political and social aspects to it as well? Are the financial aspects tied into the social and political aspects, or did the rich only have all of the power financially?
ReplyDeleteThis is an incredibly interesting topic, and you brought up some really good points! This is definitely not something I knew much about before. But out of curiosity, during the Gilded Age, how was that inequality solved or lessened?
ReplyDeleteI love that comparison you made to the Gilded Age. In America especially, it feels like our government only cares about the big businesses that prop up the political parties and everybody else is left without much help.
ReplyDeleteLet's talk about...communism! Karl Marx is on record to have said in the Communist Manifesto that class war and divide are essential components to making a communistic society. Is this happening in America? I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but is there any potential for communism to spring up in America? Some people are saying the government is taking very liberal and radical steps with controlling our lives under the disguise of Covid: forcing us to wear masks, monitoring who we can be with, etc. I'm not saying I agree with them, but...what do you think?
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting to consider as so many countries are experiencing the middle class to be shrinking. However, while the middle classes are shrinking and people are getting richer, does this mean that some people are getting poorer? How has this been effected with the concept of the Coronavirus and their affect on the stock market?
ReplyDeleteI find this very interesting because I never truly understood what this phrase meant before. What makes the fluctuations in the amount of middle class? What's one of the main factors? I find it very interesting how it can differ so greatly between different locations.
ReplyDeleteThis topic was very interesting and something I actually think about a lot. I've always felt that the people who make more and the bigger businesses are always looked upon so much better, but there are smaller businesses that are just as good, but just haven't grown as much yet or been recognized. It came to my surprise that the middle class is shrinking and I feel that being in Pewaukee we have a lot of middle class families.
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was very interesting how the shrinking of the middle class si actually very important. I would not have thought that more rich people in the United States would mean that there are less services for the middle class. One thing that also interested me was that the class inequaltiy is a bad thing. I always thought that it was good to have different social classes, but this changed my thinking to make my thinking change that it is actually not good to have lots of social inequality.
ReplyDelete