Oops, I actually wrote this draft months ago or longer. But when I hit publish it posted as if I had just now written it. This is a rough draft of some thing, and I will have more to add later.
Kind of a clunky title, and doesn’t capture the whole gist of what this post is about, but hopefully a title I’ll be able to remember if I ever want to refer to this post.
Some years back, I started to notice that there were two distinct income strata within the category of people who would call themselves “people of modest means.” On the upper end, people earning $50,000-$70,000 a year. On the lower end, people earning $15,000-$25,000 a year.
Even the people at the upper end of this category feel financially stressed a lot of the time. And might not imagine how people at the lower end would be able to survive.
Conversely, people at the lower end might have a hard time understanding how people at the upper end could still feel financially stressed.
Side note: More recently, I noticed two strata within the category of “older people.” No, it has long been recognized that there are the elderly elderly elderly people. But, what I see happening now is that the elderly elderly are still as healthy as the 60 to 70 year old. May be healthier. This may be a downward mobility of health, parallel to the downward mobility of other economic indicators.
Further exploration:
• “The income you need to fall in America’s lower, middle and upper classes — find out where you rank and how these social levels are defined” (Douglas Warren; Yahoo Finance; Feb 3, 2024). https://finance.yahoo.com/news/income-fall-americas-lower-middle-122100515.html
By income (Census Bureau Data):
Lower class: less than or equal to $30,000;
Lower-middle class: $30,001 – $58,020;
Middle class: $58,021 – $94,000
Upper-middle class: $94,001 – $153,000
Upper class: greater than $153,000
By net worth (Census Bureau data):
Lower class: $12,000
Lower-middle class: $61,260
Middle class: $145,200
Upper-middle class: $269,100
Upper class: $805,400