General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: They once inhabited a vast swath of North America but their numbers have been greatly reduced [View all]bhikkhu
(10,730 posts)You may not believe it, but I am always ready to admit I am wrong; I adopted the perspective long ago that being found wrong was a learning opportunity, and its always good to become more aware.
Going back to my original statement (and my only real point) in this thread: Census numbers say there were 200 million people in the US in 1970, and an estimated 318 million in the US in 2015. Using the standard definition of middle class, "those with incomes between 66% and 200% of the median", applied to census and BLS numbers, the Pew Research Center estimates that the middle class represented 61% of the population in 1970, and 50% of the population in 2015. 61% of 200 million is 122 million, and 50% of 318 million is 159 million. Therefore, the middle class increased by about 37 million from 1970 to 2015. What that means is another thing, and whether there are more important measures is yet another.
If any of this is wrong, please let me know. You can call it a sack of crap, or my sack of crap if you like, but without any alternative numbers I have nothing to dispute it.