We start by looking at income-based definitions, before turning to those focused on wealth, and briefly discussing other related approaches. This is partly for convenience, since data on income are widely available, and partly because income tends to be highly correlated with the other trappings of social class, such as economic security, education levels, and consumer preferences. Class = CashĮconomists tend to favor class definitions that are based on financial indicators, especially on income. We examine a range of approaches under each of these three broad headings, occasionally suggesting ways in which their selection can influence research findings and/or policy priorities. Aspiring to college or having a saver mentality are likely to lead to a bigger bank balance, and so on.īut it is important to be as clear as possible about which of these three broad approaches we are adopting for a particular purpose, especially when it comes to policy. People doing jobs with a certain social status are likely to define themselves as middle class. Levels of education, for example, are highly correlated with income (through earnings), and becoming more so. These definitions will of course overlap with and reinforce each other. Culture: attitudes, mindset, behavior, self-definition.Credentials: educational achievements and qualifications, occupational status.Cash: economic resources, especially income, wealth, freedom from poverty.For the third (culture), we need to see inside your head. For the second (credentials) we need to see your résumé. For the first (cash), we need to see your bank balance. Determining whether you are “middle class” requires different information for each of these three categories. Simply that each will delineate a different group, leading potentially to different diagnoses of trends, challenges, and opportunities, and therefore sometimes to rather different policy solutions.ĭefinitions of the middle class (and indeed of classes generally) tend to fall into one of the three broad categories, based on economic resources on education and occupation status or on attitudes, self-perception, and mindset. Our goal here is not to argue that any of these definitions or boundaries are right or wrong. Economists largely rely on definitions related to wealth or income. Philosophers and anthropologists tend to focus on culture, education, and power. Sociologists typically emphasize occupational status and/or education. Scholars working in different disciplines come at this definitional question from various angles. Is middle-class status a reflection of economic resources, especially income or wealth? Or is it denoted more clearly by occupational status and/or educational attainment? Is it, rather, a state of mind, a set of aspirations, or revealed through behavior, cultural tastes, or by certain kinds of consumption? Is it a question of how we define ourselves? What is the difference between the middle class and the working class? Does the term carry implicit racial connotations, an unspoken “white” prefix always hovering before “middle class”? Please add your own views on this question below, and/or contact In this paper, we describe the various approaches to defining the middle class, along with their pros and cons. Our new Future of the Middle Class Initiative will be settling on a working definition soon, and we would love to hear from you. For scholars, the value of any definition depends on the question they are trying to answer. But it does mean identifying the middle class with sufficient precision to be able to accurately measure progress, as well as develop and assess policy. In the final analysis, any definition of the middle class will be more or less arbitrary. This doesn’t mean slavishly adopting only one narrow criterion, to be used at all times. The crucial questions we need to answer are: why are we analyzing the middle class and its shifting fortunes, what are the main challenges they face, and how can the quality of life of the middle class be improved? All of this requires a reasonably clear idea of who we are talking about. It is difficult to describe the condition and challenges of the middle class without some clarity about who comprises the group in question. There is a kaleidoscopic range of definitions of the middle class, from a wholly subjective set of aspirations to a highly specific measure of household income, and everything in between.ĭisagreements over who counts as middle class are not merely scholarly quibbles. But there is nothing approaching a universal definition. Concern about the fate of the middle class is now almost universal. The economist Robert Solow noted that “there is no shortage of talk about the middle class”-and that was 10 years ago.
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