Is identity politics taking the wind out of the sails for class politics?

[Elixir]

There is too much wealth in the middle class, and too many people identify as middle class, for people to be up in arms about class warfare. It has been this way for a few decades now.

Here's stark graph, showing how poverty rates in the US increase under Rethuglicans and go down under Democrats. The term "middle class" has been subverted/perverted by the likes of Republican Congresscritters saying they can't live "decently" on a mere $175,000.00/year.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Whatever idiot congress-critters think the middle class is, that is irrelevant to the point about people who themselves identify as middle class.

Huh, poverty declined quite a bit in '15 and '16. Not bad.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

11 percent low and 15 percent high? That's not much variation really.

 

[ronburgundy]

There is too much wealth in the middle class, and too many people identify as middle class, for people to be up in arms about class warfare. It has been this way for a few decades now.
.

Fewer than half of Americans now belong in the middle class, down from 2/3 of Americans 40 years ago.
In 1970, the middle class got 62% of all income, and now it is down to 43%. Also, the living standards of the middle class has dropped. Since 2000 the average income of those in the Middle Class has dropped 4%, and their net worth (assets minus debts) has dropped 28%.

The median US net worth is at it's lowest level since 1968, and that is in CPI adjusted dollars which greatly under-estimates the real rise in cost of living. Most of the middle class no longer owns their own home, and % of Americans that do is at its lowest ever since the Census has been keeping track of that stat.

Meanwhile the top 10% are richer than ever in both absolute and relative terms, with the rate of increase in their wealth growing faster than ever.

There is plenty for the majority of Americans to be angry about regarding economic "class", but most have sadly bought into the right-wing propaganda that their problems are the fault of people who are even poorer and less powerful than themselves, especially those whose darker skin, different sexuality ore religious views can be used trigger tribalistic scapegoating. More recently, the left has been fueling this distraction by telling the majority of these Americans that are struggling that they are too white, straight, and cis-gendered to have any real problems, and that they "problems" are just them losing their "privilege", even if they've spent their whole life in barely getting by.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

There is too much wealth in the middle class, and too many people identify as middle class, for people to be up in arms about class warfare. It has been this way for a few decades now.
.

Fewer than half of Americans now belong in the middle class, down from 2/3 of Americans 40 years ago.
In 1970, the middle class got 62% of all income, and now it is down to 43%. Also, the living standards of the middle class has dropped. Since 2000 the average income of those in the Middle Class has dropped 4%, and their net worth (assets minus debts) has dropped 28%.

The problem here is that "middle class" doesn't really have a natural definition. It's defined as a distance around the average income--as such, it's more a measure of how incomes cluster than how many people do ok.

The median US net worth is at it's lowest level since 1968, and that is in CPI adjusted dollars which greatly under-estimates the real rise in cost of living. Most of the middle class no longer owns their own home, and % of Americans that do is at its lowest ever since the Census has been keeping track of that stat.

People move around more, especially the more well-to-do. Owning when you're moving a lot is a bad decision.