What is the middle class? AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 09/07/2010

What is the middle class?

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW

Ken Fuller

09/07/2010
The term “middle class” appears to be losing its meaning.

For some time, this outsider has been irritated by the American use of the term to describe people who in most other developed societies would be described as “working-class.” At first I thought it might have come about because in the privatized, downsized, deregulated and outsourced land of the free anyone fortunate enough to be able to live a decent life with the earnings from just one job would be considered somewhat privileged, and therefore deserving of an appellation reflective of their status. But while the numbers in decent employment may indeed be shrinking, and the status of those working in as many “McJobs” as they can handle approaches that of the informal sector of countries like the Philippines, that’s not the real reason.

There are, possibly, two explanations for the misuse of the term. For one, it would be in the interest of the economic and political rulers to persuade working people that they have a stake in the system that periodically plays havoc with their lives, and the appellation “middle class” is more likely to convey such an impression. Secondly, many workers fall for it, fooling themselves into believing that as members of this ill-defined “middle class” they’re better off and more secure than mere “working-class” people.

That may not work much longer, because increasingly there is talk of a “middle-class crisis.” A piece in the Financial Times (“The crisis of middle-class America”) by Edward Luce on July 30 tells the story of a married couple who, despite their joint earnings of $70,000 a year, are “never more than a pay check or two from the streets.” Their dilemma, says Luce, is partially due to the fact that the earnings of 90 percent of US families have been flat since 1973..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100907com5.html