We Literally Cannot All Be Middle-Class

by Adam Freelander

I have some potentially alarming news.

IT’S POSSIBLE THAT YOU ARE NOT IN THE MIDDLE CLASS.

Do not panic.

Last week, The Upshot’s Josh Barro wrote that even though the middle class is shrinking, it turns out that literally everyone thinks they are middle-class. Sadly, he wrote, it is unlikely that everyone is middle-class. Your $200K income may feel like the bare minimum a human being needs to live, but:

If you look at the data, $200,000 is not a normal income, even in a prosperous suburban county like Westchester, N.Y., where 77 percent of married couples are somehow managing to get by on less.

Readers felt attacked. “FORGIVE US FOR WANTING TO LIVE IN A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD,” one requested. We know what rich people are, they said: Rich people have butlers and wagers over whether Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd can switch lives. We do not do this!

Nobody wants to be called the R-word. Maybe they’re afraid Obama will hear and take their stuff. Maybe it’s because America glorifies its middle class, an identity that implies both hard work and homeownership, a label everyone wants in on. Barro used the term “merely affluent” where others say “upper middle class”; his real crime might have been denying readers their middle-class-ness. Still, the sentiment is sincere, not cynical: no one feels rich. Maybe you never do.

No one agrees on where the boundaries of the middle class lie. Do we count outward from the median income, or from the mean income? Should it depend on where you live? What about if, every day, you feel like you live on a precipice, like it could all go away at any moment — isn’t it obvious that a truly rich person could never have those feelings?

Here’s the thing though: not everyone can be middle-class. If you make $250,000 a year, you might not be in the middle class. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. It just means math.

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.