This is a follow up regarding my post on the Shrinking Middle Class- Two Directions.
Here's a relevant quote from a Pew Research Survey:
According to the report, released Wednesday, the middle-income tier of Americans included 51 percent of all adults in 2011, down from 61 percent in 1971. It said middle-income Americans had moved into economic tiers both above and below the middle, "with slightly more moving into the upper tier."
As you may recall, my point was that the public is not aware that part of the shrinkage in the middle class is in two directions; not just down as we are lead to believe by the conventional narrative. More than half went up and are no longer in the middle class.
We still have a problem, but it's one of a growing division of "haves and have nots" , as opposed to the 1%-99% narrative.
Why can't we be told this by the media and our politicians?
Eric
When you move up, you have more of what you had. When you move down, you suffer. This seems to me to be a good illustration of David Brook's column today. Data leading us down a wrong path.
ReplyDeleteIn our society people are supposed to move up, not down. If the middle class lost a total of 10%, even if "only" a net of 4% moved down, that also means that the people who moved up into the middle class were too few to replace the people who moved down. In other words, even if economic upward mobility is not completely impossible, it is a lot less possible than it once was. I don't see the good news that we are not being told.
ReplyDeleteYou are all missing my point. We are dividing into a country of "haves and have nots".
ReplyDeleteNot a good thing