Our American middle class keeps shrinking, according to social scientists. The alarming figure keeps dropping by double digits.
It has been a slowly developing catastrophe, that causes great damage to the quality of life of the average USA resident:
it is a bipartisan problem with a required unified solution that shows a dangerous move in the wrong direction. Gone are the days when America was self-sufficient and our youth worked hard, studied more, and learned mostly?
The term middle class was coined in James Bradshaw's 1745 pamphlet Scheme to prevent running Irish Wools to France. Another phrase used in early modern Europe was "the middling sort". The term "middle class" has had several, sometimes contradictory, meanings.
Recent figures see a downward trend and dropping in the wrong direction. Researchers say our middle class, once the economic stratum of a clear majority of American adults, has steadily contracted in the past five decades. The share of adults who live in middle-class households fell from 61% in 1971 to 50% in 2021, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data.
From 2020: Are you in the American middle class? Find out with our income calculator
The shrinking of the middle class has been accompanied by an increase in the share of adults in the upper-income tier – from 14 percent in 1971 to 21 percent in 2021 – as well as an increase in the share who are in the lower-income tier, from 25 percent to 29 percent These changes have occurred gradually, as the share of adults in the middle class decreased in each decade from 1971.
Additionally, #Gallup has, for a number of years, asked Americans to place themselves -- without any guidance -- into five social classes: upper, upper-middle, middle, working and lower. These five class labels are representative of the general approach used in popular language and by researchers.Feb 27, 2017