A lot of people in the replies to this seemingly have no idea what “class” is.
It’s not a set of values or something you automatically earn after college or like some mysterious inherent quality your parents pass down to you.
(Like, maybe your parents have enough money/assets where they can sustain you through economic insecurity, but let’s be honest…that’s not most people’s situation.)
If you are struggling with bills, if you don’t have savings, if you constantly question even small purchases, if spending a few thousand dollars on a vacation seems like a distant dream…you are not middle class.
And most importantly, saying you are not middle class is not an attack on your character.
Instead it’s a reminder to fight for your own economic interests, and not to let companies, your boss, or politicians trick you into working against yourself by believing you’re part of the “mythical middle.”
Damn
What’s more, if your first response to “you’re not middle class!” is to treat it like an attack on your character? Then you really need to stop and examine what you think about lower-class people.
Americans like to quote Kurt Vonnegut, that ‘socialism never took root in America because Americans see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.’
What that politely obscures is why Americans see themselves as future rich people: they despise the poor, even if they themselves are poor, and so would rather see themselves as “middle class” rather than ever see themselves as “poor.”
I would also like to add on this that if you are paying a mortgage on a home, but it’s a 30 year mortgage…you’re NOT middle class. Sorry!
“But by these definitions, almost NOBODY I know in the USA qualifies as middle class?!?!” Yep. Correct. Turns out the result of several decades of a “disappearing middle class” is almost everybody is poor.
