all the time. Now I know, these days "working people" of all income levels may not be finding work or working, but "working people" is the accepted term for people earning less than the middle class.

Anyway, I know he's looking out for that too. Hence things like the "living wage" and so on.

When you read him or hear him speak, isn't that what you get too?

it. That includes the poor because in a growing middle class will be some formerly working class and wages will rise and opportunity. That is what I mean when I say middle class.

Many aren't, but they think they are because they have one job, a house, a car, and insurance. They don't get to go on vacation though because there is no budget, they have no savings because they make just enough to keep food on the table and gas in the car no one is starving though, a few disasters like a car break down and huge medical expenses can literally put them in the poor house.

They would pile in the car and drive to a national park, where they would either sleep in the car or rent a cabin. And they were definitely middle class. People could still do that, but the expectation of what a "vacation" should be like has gone up.

gone up. Expectations of how big one's house should be, how much money to spend on the kids' proms, etc.

affluent comparatively, able to hire working class help around the house, for instance. Professional-level workers, like physicians and attorneys, were middle class.

With improvements in wellbeing, availability of affordable clothes off the rack,etc., guaranteed paid vacation time, etc., more leisure rime due to mechanization, the freedom afforded by a car in every garage, more access to amenities, -- and greater education attainment -- more and more working class people FEEL middle class.

I agree with the peoples' own definition. We haven't been in the 19th century for a very long change now. Many experts now use income, others lifestyle also. I agree with both.

The middle classes to my mind are a broad range between those who lack reliable provision for current and future needs at a basic level, with little or no disposable income left over, and those whose wealth frees them permanently from the need to work while maintaining a very high standard of living. Those lifestyle factors can be important also, tho, like level of education, adding complexity.

Pew puts it around $47,000 - $140,000 in dollar terms.

You parents life sounds nostalgic but not much like your own life.

Though my dad's mortgage still isn't much more than your parents', because he now lives in a tiny Mississippi town.

But,the kind of vacations my mom took as a middle class little girl are still affordable to most Americans.

The pitches are aimed at who is more likely to turn out.

If someone is working the two or three jobs, they "don't have time" to go vote. They also probably don't have a car to conveniently take them to the polls.

I was lucky when I was a grad student because I lived five blocks from the polling place. Later on, starting working before becoming car-owned, the connector bus at the subway went right by the place.

In the DC area, getting from point A to B can be very challenging without a car. Even in the areas that take pride in their bus routes, it's usually two bus rides (or subway plus bus) to get from, let's say work, to the polling place (often a school), and then one is faced with getting home after rush-hour service has often quit. The alternative is walking to the school/etc in time for polls to open, then somehow make it to work on time.

((In Virginia, one can apply for an absentee ballot, but that takes time and effort.))

Thus the propensity of many candidates to focus on the car-owned and their fears, such as "Will me or my kids ever be able to afford college?".

I volunteer at a tax assistance program. Some of them come in with evidence of five or more jobs (a couple of W2s, three (or more) 1099s,) plus estimates of cash income.

The lower earners often work part-time in the back (or front) of restaurants, doing the grunt work at car dealers, etc. If a business has a slump, guess who gets laid off first. So the helpers have to see if a client got unemployment payments...

And to see if ex-students are still living with/off parent(s), etc.

they were 'blue collar' not working class. Neo-liberalism has shattered that myth as social mobility has vanished.

... none of them give a shit about the middle OR working classes so I wouldn't get too worried about it.

Or at the very least their concern ends with the election.

Economically, that's the next step up - and who wouldn't want to be in a better economic position?

Other than the elites, everyone is either in the middle class or wants to be.

Our culture's malignant Social-Darwinist mindset meaning calling oneself working class would be an admission of being a "lazy taker". There is also a racial aspect to this, ever since Reagan's demonization of "welfare queems" the image of poverty has been racialized.