Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog

We recently wrote about the Pew report on the middle class; it has now issued a survey dealing with the upper class entitled Yes, the Rich are Different. The report states that: “… a majority of the public (65%) thinks the nation’s income gap between rich and poor has grown in the past decade—and most say that’s a bad thing for the country.”(1) Yet an overwhelming majority of respondents admire people who get rich by working hard.(1) Numerous charts detail the differences in lifestyle satisfaction among those surveyed and who identified themselves with the various “class” designations offered: upper, upper-middle, middle. lower-middle, or lower. Upper class people tend to be healthier and happier (10), have been spared much of the travails of the Great Recession (11), and greatly favor the Repiblican Party(13). Overall, Americans think the rich are smart and hardworking but also greedy and undertaxed.

According to this Pew Research Research Center report – The Lost Decade of the Middle Class– “Since 2000, the middle class has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some—but by no means all—of its characteristic faith in the future.”(1) In 140 pages, this document explores the vagaries of the last decade that have resulted in the shrinking of this group from 61% of all adults in 1971 to its present 51%; in addition, the middle class proportion of the national household income has slipped from 62% to 45% over the same timeframe.(2) There are separate chapters on demographics, economics, mobility, and politics; interspersed are informative sidebars detailing answers to the survey’s questions, such as who is better for the middle class, Obama or Romney  (3) or views of the Republican party (53). Numerous charts are scattered throughout this document as well, graphically illustrating the erosion of the middle class across so many indicators. In referencing the Great Recession, the report states that it rolled back lower and middle class household net worth by two decades.(83) This report is guaranteed to generate comment and analysis for some time. As far as defining “middle class,” it appears, as always, that there is no true definition of the term; p.1-2 contain the Pew interpretation of this term, while p.8 contains self-reported definitions from the respondents. This CRS report succinctly summarizes the dilemma – Who is the “Middle Class”?; another report is available courtesy of FactCheck.org. The White House created the Middle Class Task Force headed by VP Joe Biden; its reports are here. This article, Middle Class in America, is worth a look as well.