"America's middle class is hurting," said Vice President Joe Biden last month when he announced the formation of a Middle-Class Task Force, which will meet for the first time on Feb. 27. The recession, with its job losses, mortgage defaults and stock-market tumbles, has threatened Americans' ability to make ends meet. "It is our charge to get the middle class — the backbone of this country — up and running again," the Vice President declared, and one could practically hear the cheers emanating from single-family homes with two-car garages.
But what exactly is the American middle class?
Class is an inherently nebulous concept, and although the U.S. government defines poverty (presently, it's anything under $22,000 for a family of four), it does not define what it means to be middle class. The U.S. Census Bureau says the median income in the U.S. is about $51,000 a year, but how far does the "middle" stretch? According to a 2008 Pew Research Center survey, half of Americans self-identify as middle class.
Our modern image of the middle class comes from the post–World War II era. The 1944 GI Bill provided returning veterans with money for college, businesses and home mortgages. Suddenly, millions of servicemen were able to afford homes of their own for the first time. As a result, residential construction jumped from 114,000 new homes in 1944 to 1.7 million in 1950. In 1947, William Levitt turned 4,000 acres of Long Island, New York, potato farms into the then largest privately planned housing project in American history. With 30 houses built in assembly-line fashion every day — each with a tree in the front yard — the American subdivision was born.
Then came the cars. And the backyard barbecues. And the black-and-white TVs. Ozzy and Harriet, Lucy and Ricky, Leave it to Beaver. In September 1958, Bank of America tested its first 60,000 credit cards (later named Visa) in Fresno, Calif. Within a decade, Americans had signed up for more than 100 million credit cards. Today, the number tops 1 billion. African Americans were able to pull themselves into the middle-class bracket through the social gains of the civil rights movement, though a disproportionate number still live below the poverty line.
Today, most middle-class Americans are homeowners. They have mortgages, at least some college education and a professional or managerial job that earns them somewhere between $30,000 and $100,000 a year. Although the suburban stereotype still holds, the middle class is just as likely to be found in urban centers (rural, not so much), and 70% of them have cable and two or more cars. Two-thirds have high-speed Internet, and 40% own a flat-screen TV. They have several credit cards each and a lot of luxury goods, but they still believe that others have more than they do. In 1970, TIME described middle America as people who "sing the national anthem at football games — and mean it."
Middle Class Shrinks Further as More Fall Out Instead of Climbing Up
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Originally Posted by Ronin Truth
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