How the Middle Class Is Shrinking

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Compare top marginal tax rates over time (since 1900) to the share of total income accruing to the wealthy over the same time. You'll get the picture. Low rates=high income inequality. We can either raise top marginal rates or watch the middle class die. 25 years ago the top 10% to 35% of total income. They now take 50%. In another 25 years it will be 65% or 70% or higher. Nothing left for a middle class.

Don of ID 4:00PM January 08, 2012

I feel strongly about the decline of the American middle class. So much so, that I wrote the song, 'In The Middle' to express how I feel. www.georgeskala.com

George of ME 5:26PM October 21, 2011

Don't forget how poor people living off welfare are draining every penny out of the middle class.

Ali of CT 7:45PM September 11, 2011

This is a decent article for what it compares. I agree with Kyle (IN) from the standpoint of "what is middle class vs poor?" My family of 5 grew up in a small midwestern town and we lived in a brand new 1200 sq ft rambler house and had one car. My Dad was a small town doctor and I guess that means we were "rich?"
When I saw $35K was the "poor" line - I looked at my own family of 3 living in a 2500 sq ft house with a pool - 3 cars (no car loans) and money in the bank, with about $40K per year take home pay. I just found out we qualify for food stamps !!
As a country, we have just become too expectant of the lifestyle we are fed by television and other media - then we get morphed into class envy positions by politicians. The political machine is self-serving and really doesn't care about the poor, middle class or the rich - only who can make their own lifestyle continue unabated. Look at the explosion of jobs in Washinton - and it does not matter who is in the White House.
You just gotta be an outlier and make your own happiness with whatever you DO have (like Kyle says). Any other expenditure of your time and emotion is wheel-spinning.

Bear Dawg of AZ 12:56PM July 17, 2011

My apologies for the mispellings and other glitches in my earlier comments.

clark ross of MD 3:16PM July 14, 2011

The failure to adjust for inflation reduces the argument in this article to near absurdity. For example, to consider a family income of $35,000 as reprentative of the middle class in the year 2011 is ridiculous. Every indicator of the federal government places a contemporary income of $35,000 in the low income bracket and entitles the recipient to a range of benefits and federal subsidies. The vast majority of the US population lives in medium size to large cities. Can you imagine even a family of two living in middle class style on $35,000 in such places. What about a family of three, or four which is considered average?? Even an income of $100,000 today in America's urban areas is thought to place a family in the lower half of middle class. With regard to the comment from Kyle of "Ind.," which I assume is Indiana, one of the basic verities of life is that everything in relative. At the start of my career in the early 60s, I earned less than $40,000 and thought I was doing well. Prices were stable and my first house, for which I hade to make a 20 percent downpayment in cash, cost less than $30,000. My Dodge Dart cost less than $3,000. Gasoline cost less than $1 per gallon. At the end of my career in the mid 90s I earned almost $100,000 and was doing only slightly better than I was at the beginning in the early 60s! The compact car I now drive cost almost as much as my first house and one could not even purchase a one bedroom apartment in my community now for $30,000! America was much more sound economically in the 60s than it was in the 90s, and certainly much more so than now!!

clark ross of MD 3:12PM July 14, 2011

You know, there are so many countries and people who are still doing far more worse than we are. I believe we are to spoiled. There is too much, " What's in it for me?" mindset. We need more people who give and ask nothing in return. I work for Walmart and they and me are always looking for ways to cut cost, so we can lower our prices. Others cut a cost and pocket the money. Yeah we are hurting compared to yesterday's standards, but we forget what we still have and are forgetting what are needs and wants. We need to be more sentimental and less materialistic. It may not fix the problem at hand, but it can help you get through it. We are to focused on greed. Sad "giving" is now a rare commodity. I'm not saying quit striving for a better life, but helping others can mean a lot, and make life better in times like these. To me I am wealthy when i look at what i have and not at what I don't. Remember, there is some one doing worse than you, and you should help them out with nothing asked in return. Wouldn't you want the same?
And 35,000 a year is middle class! Wow, i make way less and I thought i was middle class, see I'm happy with what i have, now living poorly.

Kyle of IN 8:34PM July 07, 2011

This analysis is missing one key point ... inflation. The income brackets need to be adjust for real inflation. For example, gas going from $1 per gallon to $3.5 per gallon. If one has a long commute the price alone will drastically affect discretionary spending. The cost of gas factored into many other product price increases too. Many food products have been reduced in size.
The wage brackets need to move and should be aligned with the federal government salary growth rates over the same period. These salaries are the only ones indexed to the true inflation rate.

winston of NC 9:05PM June 29, 2011

It is what it is. You may go anywhere you think is better.

al of OH 4:26PM June 15, 2011

Now lets take into account that more and more families are now two income (or more) households. In 1969, one person was able to maintain an income that positioned their household in the middle class, now 2 incomes are required just to avoid poverty levels. Resulting in a general decline in family values, stress, health issues.
Economic stimulus packages would have worked great if corporate greed hadn't intervened.

John of PA 8:54AM April 22, 2011