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I thought I was giving my kids the best childhood ever until my 4-year-old asked why we didn't own a 'bigger golf cart'
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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You have an idea in your head of a standard that is "middle class".
That is not what I'm talking about.
Statistically speaking "middle class" is the median and a statistical deviation either way.
But that paints an incredibly depressing and realistic picture of what America's "economy" is really like. So the wealthy have pushed the narrative you're following that only a minority of people can obtain "middle class".
Historically when shit gets organized like that, it doesn't end well for the ones that hoarded all the wealth.
The harsh truth is that "middle class" is pretty fucking broke. It's just what happens when you concentrate the wealth at one end of the distribution. And literally the only way to fix that, is by moving the wealth to people lower in the distribution.
So rather than that be the discussion, it benefits the wealthy if people do what you're doing, and act like it just disappeared and can magically be made to reappear from thin air without taking wealth back from the people who have it now.
Simply taking a statistical look ignores what it was for centuries before. Middle class is more than just income, it's what that income means for your lifestyle and ability and it has been eroded as you say and will need to be taken back, but people fooling themselves into thinking they are just because of their income are in a bracket.
Oh you earn the middle income? Too bad it's 90% of your rent but don't worry you're still middle class! Nothing to be worried about here!
You're right. Middle class to me means owning a home or at least paying well on a mortgage. One car per person. Vacation money. Fun money. Paycheck to paycheck will never be middle class to me just because it's the statistical median. This is what people mean when they say the middle class is disappearing. The majority of Americans are working class, poor, or destitute. There's a fraction that are middle class and up.
In this stupid article the author says she was middle class but her parents often couldn't afford pizza. That is not middle class. Am I fucking crazy here?
I'm not saying that's fine, I've literally said multiple times it's not, and that looking at like you are downplays the problem.
I'm sorry I couldn't find a better way to explain it.