[longtimegoogler]

Agree. I think the greatest ill of our society is the death of the middle class and the widening gap between the haves and the have nots.

Some suggest that taxation is the answer but maybe another answer is for companies to distribute their wealth more widely.

[nemo44x]

The middle class hasn't died at all. In fact it is larger today than ever before. It's just a bad narrative people have bought into. [1]

In essence what has happened as the upper-middle class has grown over the last 40 years. Poor, lower-middle and regular middle class percentage has shrunk to its lowest levels. We have fewer poor people than ever before. But because the upper middle class has grown so much, middle class people feel closer to poor people.

We have more well to do people than ever before. The middle class is smaller but the lower-middle and poor classes are even smaller. So people have generally moved up.

[1] https://www.aei.org/economics/the-us-middle-class-is-disappe...

[longtimegoogler]

Interesting hypothesis. Thanks for the article. I will have to stew on this. It doesn't seem to jibe with the all angst about class that people seem to be feeling.

[nemo44x]

Some hypothesis I’ve read believe that because the upper middle has grown so much and is so visible, middle class people don’t feel as middle class.

More people have moved up than down. However as the nation has become more wealthy a greater share of the wealth has gone to upper middle than below them.

I think there’s so many dynamics at play here and it isn’t 100% cut and dry. For instance, there are more single parent (or single person) homes. Divorce isn’t socially unacceptable anymore and young people are waiting longer to get married. Do people lose the efficiencies of 2 earners in a household and possibly the class bump?

I’m not an expert on this but the data does show growth in the middle class by growing the upper-middle and a shrinking poverty class.