Harry Moroz
The Shaky Middle-Class
The policy institute Demos released a report last week showing that middle-class households are increasingly at risk in several of the characteristics that define a middle-class standard of living. Between 2000 and 2006, the assets of middle-class families declined, housing costs rose, and the percentage of middle-class families in which at least one member lacks health insurance increased.
The report concludes that in 2006 28% of middle-class families were vulnerable in three or more of the factors that support a middle-class standard of living (education, household assets, budget, housing costs, and healthcare in Demos’s reckoning), an increase from 25% in 2000.
The findings square with our overview of the status of the middle-class in 2008.
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Posted at 2:00 PM, Nov 25, 2008 in Middle-class squeeze
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There are a lot of items one can quibble about in the Demos study.
For example, the study says the percentage of middle-class families with uninsured members rose from 18% in 2000 to 25% in 2006. I have no idea what this actually means in a country where the total number of uninsured people rose from 14.8% to 15.8% over the same period. It's an interesting question to investigate, but unfortunately the study doesn't do any such investigation; instead, it produces a graph suggesting that far more Americans lack insurance now than did in 2000.
For another example, the benchmark used for housing security is weird. All the benchmarks I've seen say housing costs should be no more than 30% to one third of pretax income. By changing the standard to after-tax income, the study imposes an unusually stringent condition, especially on the urban upper middle class.
Posted by: Alon Levy | November 25, 2008 06:01 PM
wow, i am impressed with this site…
Posted by: Jesmi | November 27, 2008 04:25 AM