It’s all vanishing. If we stay on this trajectory, a majority of residents will not be middle class. (As defined by Pew, the middle class is a household that makes between 67 percent and 200 percent of the national median income.)
Some of Pew’s findings:
• Just 51 percent of adults were in the middle class in 2011 – down from 61 percent in 1971.
• The middle class’s median wealth dropped 28 percent in the decade since 2000, and its median income fell 5 percent.
• The middle class’s share of the nation’s household income has dropped from 62 percent in 1971 to 45 percent now. The lower-income group has stayed about the same, and the upper class has increased its share, from 29 percent to 46 percent.
“The notion that we are a society with a large middle class, with lots of economic and social mobility and a belief that each generation does better than the next – these are among the core tenets of what it means to be an American,” Pew’s Paul Taylor told the Los Angeles Times. “But that’s not necessarily the case anymore.”
I added the bold. We need a vibrant middle class to maintain a healthy economy. Will more tax breaks for the Top 1% , plus cutbacks for the poor & middle class fix this? Please. You know. You all know you know. Well, I know you know, anyway.....