When it comes to the middle class, the general definition is that the middle class is defined by a household’s income that ranges between two-thirds to double the national median income. This, though, doesn’t really say enough about the wealth of the middle class, or their status, or their overall comfort zone, or consider their debts. Being middle class should consist of having enough wealth so derived from their income and savings, which permits those who would be of the middle class to either own their home outright, or to have the assets in hand that would permit them to own their home outright. This should also be the same case for their best household vehicle. Also, to remain in the middle class, the occupants need to have all the appropriate insurance, such as home, auto, and medical, that would serve to backstop them in case of an unexpected adverse event. It should also be noted that debts from credit cards and other loans should be at a percentage of the overall wealth that servicing such would be manageable. Additionally, to that, the money being earned by the household should be no less than two-thirds of the median national income, with that job position essentially being secured or as close to secure as possible, and these combined would make that household to fairly represent being a successful member of the middle class.
For those that are making good money but have not yet obtained enough wealth to own a house and/or their vehicle, rather than seeing them as being middle class, it would be more appropriate to see them as being on the pathway to middle class status, but because so many jobs are not secure in America, and debts accumulated through credit cards, student loans and the like are so prevalent, it is not a certainty that they would actually ever achieve such, which is why we see that the present generation is perceived as being in worse shape than previous generations that have come before them, because the cost of living in America has risen, without a corresponding increase in salary for so many of those that would traditionally make up the middle class, in addition to the fact that job security in this nation, is problematic, at best, for a whole lot of working people.
Indeed, what makes America great is not the rich, and it certainly isn’t the fact that we have so many poor people amongst us, but rather it has everything to do with its strong middle class, which represents all the good qualities of what it means to be part and parcel of America, which is why the governance of this nation should make its top priority to do everything possible to see that this nation has a robust middle class for as long as possible, and that the middle class should be expanding within our borders and not therefore contracting -- for the middle class to be found to be contracting would typically represent that not all is well within America, signaling perhaps the end of America as we know and love it.