Downward Mobility During Obama's Term

Demographer Joel Kotkin, whose work we've cited repeatedly, takes a look for Forbes at the incomes of what he defines as the "middle class" and finds they are hurting. See what he writes:

Not only did the income of the middle 60% of households drop between 2010 and 2012 while that of the top 20% rose, the income of the middle 60% declined by a greater percentage than the poorest quintile. The middle 60% of earners’ share of the national pie has fallen from 53% in 1970 to 45% in 2012.

This group, what I call the yeoman class — the small business owners, the suburban homeowners , the family farmers or skilled construction tradespeople — is increasingly endangered. Once the dominant class in America, it is clearly shrinking: In the four decades since 1971 the percentage of Americans earning between two-thirds and twice the national median income has dropped from 61% to 51% of the population, according to Pew.

Roughly one in three people born into middle class-households, those between the 30th and 70th percentiles of income, now fall out of that status as adults.

I'm reasonably certain "fall out" means ending up in the bottom group, aka "poor." Downward mobility? On Obama's watch? I'm shocked, shocked....