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Where does the middle class begin and end?
According to Gallup's latest data, about two-thirds of Americans who put themselves as the middle class.
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Adriene Hill: This week, Marketplace is rolling out its new Wealth and Poverty Desk. Today, we want to know how income inequality plays with the American public.
It's time for our weekly Attitude Check. Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport joins us now, as he does every Thursday. Good morning Frank.
Frank Newport: Good morning.
Hill: Where do people believe the middle class begins and ends?
Newport: There is no official data from the Census Bureau, so we don't know that way. Sociologists have tried to figure it out for many, many years. The way we do it here at Gallup was we simply asked people: What class are you in? We give them a list of class, and the middle class is actually very popular -- almost half of Americans say 'yes, I'm in the middle class.' That's a very broad group of people based on their income, and actually another 17 percent say 'I'm in the upper-middle class.' So that's about two-thirds of Americans who put themselves as the middle class. Very, very few people want to say they're upper class; very, very few people say they're lower class; the rest of the people that aren't middle class like the words "working class."
Hill: Now at what point income-wise do people say, 'Yep, I'm wealthy. I'm upper class.'
Newport: You know, that's in the eye of the beholder, but if you really look at the broad spectrum -- how much money do you need to make to be rich? -- $150,000 is the median. That is, half of Americans say something that is under $150,000-a-year income would make them rich, and half say something over that. But the data show that if you make $30,000 a year, then aspirationally you look up and say, 'If only I could make $150,000 a year, I would be rich.'
Hill: I want to ask about the wealth gap, which is growing right now between the very rich and the very poor. Is that something voters care about?
Newport: You know, most voters don't overall. We gave Americans a long list of about nine different issues that they could take into account in voting, and lowering that gap between the rich and the poor was seventh out of the nine. The only two things that were lower in priority were immigration and moral issues. So it's not a high priority on average. However, that masks the fact that underneath there, if you're a Democrat and liberal, all of a sudden it shoots way up, because they're responding to President Obama's emphasis on lowering the gap between the rich and the poor. But for Independents and Republicans -- particularly Republicans -- it's a very low priority issue.
Hill: Gallup's Frank Newport, thanks.
Newport: My pleasure.
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I found it surprising that voters were not more interested in the income gap and it made seventh on the list of 9 issues that voters were more likely to care about. The income gap seems to be increasing in this country and more people would want to have this as a discussion.
In the podcast it talks about how two-thrids of the population say they belong to the middle class. I also find it intereseting that they say they belong to one class but in reality they belong to either the Lower Class or the High Class. This could be a pride issue as well.
I feel as if asking what class you're in is the only way to find out. You can't check anything off on paper that says how hard you work or how easy it is for you to get by. You can get a ballpark estimate, but you won't really know until you ask people up front what they do and how they are living. Upper, middle, and lower class is a very broad way to categorize such an intricate subject.
Personally, I believe that it is entirely possible to live off of 30,000 dollars a year and still be in the middle part of the middle class. But, in order to do this, one can't go buying the newest cellphone or iPod, using up credit cards and forgetting to pay the bills. To make a living through this, is all about balancing money. There is a major difference between "need" and "want", as my parents say. We need food, albeit not the stuff thats loaded with fat and carbs, but the good healthy stuff. We need to provide a good education, pay bills, have decent healthcare. Sure, most people want new clothes or a new car, but they should take into account how often they will use it and how good of a deal they can get. To most Americans, being successful is all about the money and the material things. But it's not. Having success means a good education, job, and lifestyle.
Humans are greedy and no matter how much money you make you'll all ways compare yourself to others asking weather or not "Am I makeing enough money to be considered the richest of the rich?" So in the middle class people are constantly checking themselves to see if they're makeing enough money. "Almost half of Americans say 'yes, I'm in the middle class." But only 17 percent of Americans say theyre in the upper middle class but they don't actually know what classifys as upper middle class.
Sounds more like a pride issue to me. Two-thirds of the people say they are either middle class, upper middle class, or working class. No one wants to really say they are either rich or poor. So where does that draw the line in the sand so to say? Congress doesn't want to do bridge that gap if people are much more content with themselves if they are seen as middle class rather than upper or lower class?
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