Why Is the "Middle Class" Stressed?: An interesting New Hypothesis from Emmons and Noeth - Washington Center for Equitable Growth:
1. Americans are used to seeing real incomes improve at 2%/year–doubling every generation–and they have not been getting that. Living little better than your predecessors a generation ago is an unpleasant shock.
2. The things that have been becoming cheaper are not seen as things key to your “middle class” status, while the things becoming more expensive and difficult to obtain–a detached house in a good neighborhood with a short commute, health insurance, secure pensions, a good education for your children–are things that it used to be taken for granted a middle-class family could get.
3. The widening gap between the middle class and the upper class.
1. Americans are used to seeing real incomes improve at 2%/year–doubling every generation–and they have not been getting that. Living little better than your predecessors a generation ago is an unpleasant shock.
2. The things that have been becoming cheaper are not seen as things key to your “middle class” status, while the things becoming more expensive and difficult to obtain–a detached house in a good neighborhood with a short commute, health insurance, secure pensions, a good education for your children–are things that it used to be taken for granted a middle-class family could get.
3. The widening gap between the middle class and the upper class.
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