Angry, hostile people (aka Democrats) will tell you our American middle class is shrinking, leaving you with the false impression many are falling downward out of the middle class. As Power Line's John Hinderaker writes, nothing could be farther from the truth.
The middle class is shrinking because more people than ever are making more than $100k a year, and by the way, the lower income group is shrinking too, albeit less dramatically. Check out this chart.
The changes you see are not attributable to inflation either. The chart plots constant dollars with inflation factored out. If the data are accurate, the American dream lives on.
If you'd asked me yesterday if the group making over $100k was bigger than the group making between $35k and $100k or the group making less than $35k, I would have said no, reflexively. And I would have been wrong.
To be sure, there are households making over $100k which have trouble making ends meet, spendthrifts we will always have with us. Still, when folk tell you times are tough, what they are really saying is that they, or those they care about, are having a tough time. However good the “times” are, there are still individuals experiencing difficulties.
