Middle class

The Middle class is a social class - a "class of people intermediate between the classes of higher (upper class or aristocracy) and lower social rank or standing (working class); the social, economic, cultural class, having approximately average status, income, education, tastes, and the like. It is the the class traditionally intermediate between the aristocratic class and the laboring class."

[mid-l-klas, -klahs] -- of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the middle class; bourgeois: Origin: 1890-95. "Middle class" as a term first appeared in a 1745 pamphlet by James Bradshaw called "Scheme to prevent running Irish Wools to France."

Points about the Middle Class:

• The Middle class is America's (and indeed the Western World's) most largest socioeconomic group
• The median, or middle, household income in the United States today is $50,054 as of early 2013.
• Popular vision of middle class is rooted in 1950s, when a generation found solid jobs, bought houses in the suburbs and took modest family vacations.

The Republican McCain-Palin campaign applied "Joe the Plumber" as a metaphor for middle class Americans.

Quotes from Lenin

• “The way to crush the middle class is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.” -- Lenin

See Also

• Aristocracy
• Bourgeoisie
• Working class - or laboring class.
• Proletariat

External Sites

• http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/14/middle-class-hard-define/2080565/
• 7 things the middle class can’t afford anymore: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/10/25/cheat-sheet-middle-class-cant-afford/17730223/

• http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21272238/ns/us_news-gut_check/t/who-or-what-middle-class/