The Declining Middle Class

The CNBC website carries an Associated Press article about the declining percentage of Americans who self-identify as middle class. The article offers two different statistics relevant to this issue:

Since 2008, the number of people who call themselves middle class has fallen by nearly a fifth, according to a survey in January by the Pew Research Center, from 53 percent to 44 percent. Some 40 percent now identify as either lower-middle or lower class, compared with just 25 percent in February 2008.

According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans who say they're middle or upper-middle class fell eight points between 2008 and 2012, to 55 percent.

The article's discussion of why self-evaluated status recently has declined brings up several different points:

The trend reflects a widening gap between the richest Americans and everyone else, one that's emerged gradually over decades and accelerated with the Great Recession.

More people now think "it's harder to achieve" the American dream than thought so several decades ago.

A key reason is that the recession eliminated 8.7 million jobs. A disproportionate number were middle-income positions.

Many of the formerly middle class are still struggling with student debt.

Some people feel they've fallen out of the middle class even as their incomes have remained stable, because their costs have risen.

I accept all of those reasons except the first. People don't decide whether or not they are middle class based on how much money Bill Gates or Warren Buffett has, or Mark Zuckerberg, for that matter.

People understand their status from their own financial and social situation, whether they are or are not living paycheck to paycheck one large bill away from bankruptcy. The biggest reason people feel reduced status is the elimination of millions of middle class jobs that didn't require specialized higher education.

A reason the article totally overlooks is the decline of marriage among the less-educated former middle class. People who cannot afford to marry understand themselves to be less-than-middle-class; marriage is a key marker of middle class status.