Why is the middle class getting smaller in the US?

Answer 1

Actually, I'd like to see some proof that this is actually true. I don't believe it to be so. Oh, that's what the politicians tell us to incite class warfare and make us feel like we're somehow being oppressed.

But historical income tables by the Census bureau don't reflect that the middle class is shrinking. Please look at the Historical Income Table I've linked to below. Look at the second table, which is inflation adjusted (real gains or losses). We've had periods of declines, but the overall trend for all income groups is up! Again, this is real gains computed after inflation has been factored.

What it tell us is the middle 20% of income households (middle class) has gained 8% in real purchasing power since 1995.

Even the poor and lower middle class have had real gains since 1995, albeit smaller.

I've graphed this out at the second link below, and what you'll see is all income groups, including the rich, gaining or losing pretty much in line with the other income groups. Sure, they don't lose as much during the years where there are recessions or downturns, and they gain more in the boom years, but they do pretty much lose or gain at the same times, just not to the same degrees.

Answer 2

You've asked a question for which there is NO valid answer or even a basis, for that matter. You have not defined "middle class", nor have you demonstrated that it has shrunk. You have only an assumption & an apparent desire to ignite a class-warfare argument for which there is no resolution.

My belief is that the "middle class" is comprised of those who can afford all of the essentials of life, yet are insecure about their position in the social order. This insecurity, imo, has led to the illusion that the middle class is shrinking b/c more of them are doing foolish things like sending the stay-at-home parent to work, thinking it will help them afford nicer things. What actually happens is that they screw up their kids by dumping them in daycare, raise their expenses by paying for daycare, additional nicer clothing, dining out & other "conveniences". Don't forget additional taxes. They also believe that it is essential to always move "up" in house - never sideways or down. These families see all the other families around them doing the same thing & think "all those people can have it all, so we should have it all, too". They fail to realize that many others just like them are as broke, stressed & insecure as they are. For these reasons, the middle class feels (correctly) that it is in an increasingly precarious position. What they & the media fail to recognize is that the precariousness of this situation is of their own making.

Btw, I knew a couple w/ 1 child who came here from Europe. They were debt-free millionaires. They bought a modest house in an equally modest neighborhood. They later decided to move to a smaller house a few blocks away. Everyone in their neighborhood expressed sympathy. They were convinced, inspite of the couple's protests, that the couple was destitute. It would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so damned pathetic.

Answer 3

Several reasons. Gov definition of mid class has changed to make more people poor. Medical expenses (one reason) are causing some mid class to become poor. But some mid class are moving up. More millionars today than at all times in past history. May make 10 million more over the next 10 years. While savings are down in the USA, investments are up and investors feel better about life in general. More money in circulation more wealth-get with the program. Go where the money is.

Answer 4

The incredible lack of incentives left to cause people to fight the fight to stay there !!
The richest Americans have been cut from any tax burden at all --- the poorest Americans can not pay taxes any way--- and the government has strapped it ALL on the backs of the middle class while moving us into the largest national debt on record !!
Add to this the FACT that the government --despite its TALK about the "evils" of outsourcing labor from the American work force to other nations---have literally stayed awake day and night providing employers every opportunity in the world to do just that with all kinds of incentives and breaks in taxes ---- another major case of double speak that is taking the middle class jobs abroad----
THEN AT THE SAME TIME---the government has literally kicked down the door at the Mexican border and have given every incentive known to man for the flood of Mexican immigrants to come pouring into the country and into the work place with very little request for pay as long as they can just BE HERE--- again-- it is the middle class jobs that suffer because as the wage scale goes under--- what employers are willing to pay everyone goes down the tubes !!!
After a while--- people see this for themselves-- they get tired of fighting the flow--and just cease to give a damn and let the flow take them into the ranks of the unemployed welfare system where someone else will simply take care of THEM !!!!

Answer 5

Incomes for the middle class are at a stand still. Just because the Dow is on the rise doesn't mean it translate into corporate investments -- more jobs and raises for employees.

Also small businesses are struggling with increases in health insurance premiums. This country is built on the strength of small businesses. When small business hurts, we all hurt.

Answer 6

You struck a nerve in me! This is my soap box!

Policemen, Firemen and Teachers are America's traditional middle class and when the caretakers of the cities can not afford to buy a house in the cities they serve, something is wrong with the governmental institution.

A typical middle class worker makes around 45 thousand a year but the houses and real estate in most cities cost more than $300,000 and no matter how hard a middleclassed worker works, no matter how much overtime or second jobs they take, they can not affore to qualify for a decent house outside the ghetto.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and the middle class either get an inheritance and become rich or don't and become poor. The middle class is split these days as no one takes care of the middle class. If you are poor enough, you qualify for all kinds of assistance and if you are rich enough, you can afford tuition, down payments on houses and cars, etc.

What is the middle class worker supposed to do? When the rich people's houses burn down we'll just tell them....let it burn because the nearest place your fireman can live near your town is 150 miles away and it will be a couple of hours before that working person can arrive to throw water on your rich house.

When the rich people's houses are burglarized, we can tell them, "Well, I know the fingerprints are still fresh but it will be a few hours before our policemen and investigators can arrive because the nearest affordable housing for your public servant is 150 miles away. Hang in there and be patient."

When rich people have trouble finding good schools for their rich kids, we'll tell them you can either helicopter your kids 150 miles to where teachers can afford to live or move.

One way or another, these rich people are going to have to pay their public servants. Either through taxes or by providing housing for the middle class workers. People making $45,000 a year have children to feed, clothe and educate too. People making $45,000 must have a place to live and transportation to work.

The scarey thing is there are a lot of people making do with a LOT LESS than $45,000 a year! How can they afford education, clothes and food for themselves and their children? I will imagine that the crime rate will rise because parents WILL feed and take their children to the doctor one way or another and if they get caught stealing, they will be put in prison and their children will be given to foster parents to raise. People making less than $45,000 usually work two jobs and can't be at home with their kids much so even if the parents aren't stealing to get by, their children are often unsupervised and become drug dealers and problems to society. (Even children of teacher's, firemen and policemen are turning to crime as a result of lack of supervision and jealousy. Everyday you hear of a policemans child who has committed some crime while dad and mom are away working. Mom must work to if they want to afford a house in the neighborhoods they serve.)

The high cost of real estate is almost criminal. People are already working as hard as they can, stress related illnesses are jacking up insurance rates, and middle class workers with high responsibility jobs can hardly afford to work second jobs physically and emotionally and yet many, many do. WHAT GIVES!!!???

The problem of the middle class is a serious problem in America!!!

Answer 7

Lower and upper classes don't pay taxes... that leaves middle class to pay everything. Wages aren't going up making it harder to live and pay for everyone else. Jump off the boat and do nothing with your life... the government will reward you. Taxes well spent right...?

Answer 8

Because the gap between the rich and the poor is becoming so wide that the middle classes fall into the abyss.

Answer 9

Jobs. Really, it is that simple.

Your CEOs have been outsourcing labor for the past 26 years, and not just any labor....the overwhelming majority of it has been permanent, full-time, salaried and usually *unionized* labor. They've been stabbing us all in the backs all this time, sending out our *best* jobs, the ones with the decent wages and perks, to the cold dead armpit of Kyrgyzstan (for example) where people are willing to work in a cesspool for fifty cents a day....

And what are we left with? Dead-end minimum wage crap over at your Wal-Mart plantation....or temp jobs where you have to wait by the phone nearly 24/7 and have neither a life nor plans *ever* to even think about getting a day's worth of precious work. Either way, it's a massive wage cut, a total benefits cut as people end up doing without pensions and healthcare, and basically it massively screws over *everyone* who even remotely *aspires* to work for a living.

Think it isn't so....check this link out from Yahoo News itself.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070225/ap_on_re_us/welfare_state

Scroll down a bit as you read that: the problem outlined in that article is that people *are* working but aren't able to become self-sufficient courtesy of the "just take any job" mentality of "Welfare Reform". The jobs aren't there, in terms of being *able* to make more than minimum wage, or in terms of being able to earn your *own* health care....

And THAT is because of your backstabbing, filthy greedhead CEOs who insist that they earn 400-500 times the amount of their lowest-paid workers. Never mind that this attitude wipes out whole towns and communities every time the jobs are *given* away to some Third World Barbaric State where the people there only wish to see us *dead*. Oh no, we have to be for "free trade" even when it is utterly self-destructive and masochistic for most of us Citizens.

Really. It's all about the jobs. The good, Middle Class jobs have been STOLEN from us, and what we are left with is welfare, a Mass Media driven hate of the poor, and nothing but Dead-End Plantation Labor from sea to polluted sea....

Take care and be safe. Thank you for your time and patience. And God Bless the ordinary human in America, he needs it in this world of super-rich vultures and the religious fanatics they own.

Answer 10

Because the government's tax cuts are allowing the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer, and dragging more people down toward the bottom, leaving fewer people in the middle class.