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Did Obama, Clinton just redefine the middle class?


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Amidst the slo-mo trainwreck of last week's Democratic debate, columnist Debra Saunders found one interesting question unanswered:

"When did households earning $200,000 and change become middle class?"

From the column:

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Clinton pledged not to raise "a single tax on middle-class Americans, people making less than $250,000 a year." Obama answered he would make a similar pledge, "it depends on how you calculate it (the income level), but it would be between $200,000 and $250,000."

Last weekend, the big campaign flap concerned whether Obama's remarks about "bitter" small-town Pennsylvanians were "elitist." On Wednesday, when the candidates described $200,000-a-year earners as middle class, no one batted an eye.

...In 2006, the median annual household income in America was $48,201. The median income for two-earner families was $78,994.

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What do you think? Is this a way of simply courting more campaign contributions by conveniently re-defining the middle class, or is this actually reflective of the level of income now required to live the "middle class lifestyle" of the baby boomer generation? What does it mean to be middle class? does it even still exist?

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Photo by flickr user Amit Gupta - http://www.flickr.com/photos/superamit/130623447/ Licensed under Creative Commons - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en
digitrash

6 responses // Did Obama, Clinton just redefine the middle class?

  • Interesting point. In the days of multi million dollar lottery winners and multi million dollar severence pkgs for fired CEO's one could certainly state that someone earning 200 - 250 thousand a year is middle class, but it is surely UPPER middle class or LOWER upper class. More importantly, this is simply more evidence of the wealth divide and erasure of the middle class.
    royalstar23
  • I don't think median income is what determines the middle-class. The median incomes you quoted are definitely working class incomes - and the huge number of working class earners is what brings that median income so low.
    Vierotchka
  • I imagine that most families earning $200k derive the majority of that income from wages and that most would quickly find themselves in serious financial trouble if one of the wage earners were to become unemployed.

    I suspect that most familioes at that income level may live in nice houses and drive more expensive cars but still live two missed paychecks from financial disaster.
    seeker561
  • I think both of their statements are clear indications of how completely out of touch our politicians are with what it means to be middle-class in America.
    Incredulous
  • These politicians have been so rich their entire lives, they have no idea what and who the middle class actually is. Anyone making $250,000 a year is pretty damn rich in my book.
    robin49
  • who have we been electing into office for years? lawyers and spoiled rich kids who would not have a clue how to-make do-and have hamburger helper one more time a week. and every time they come up with a new way to tax us out of some more of our money millions of us say yes yes yes we need that goverment program ie. job security for these same people.start at the local level and just say NO. no more get these out of touch eliteist self serving people out of goverment. we have let this come about and only we can change it . they have no reason to as long as its on our buck
    salmon2007

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