HuffPost: The Middle Class Has Become The CLASS OF PAIN

Grant Cardone
The Middle Class Has Become The CLASS OF PAIN
August 2, 2008 | 01:14 AM (EST)




The official poverty line in 2007 was stated at 20,650 for a family of four.
As for the middle class, the Congressional Research Service issued a report last year pegging middle class income as between 19k and 91k. Average median income is 48,200 so does that make you middle class? And what does it mean to be middle class?

So everyone above 90k a year is rich and everyone below it is middle class. If you make $90,000 in Boise Idaho you obviously have a different standard of living than if I make 90k in Los Angeles. Does this mean because of my income I am middle class no matter the cost of living? This is ridiculous logic bordering on outright idiotic calculations. These terms are thrown around loosely and with such disregard and with no significant meaning that they no longer even relate to the times.

What is middle class anyway? Is it an income level and then you are in this club called the Middle Class? And what do you get from this club? Is it even something worth being a part of or aspiring to? Is there some line you cross over from one class to the other based on your income. Income is only one small part of an individuals financial well-being.

Part of the problem is definitions, semantics, and certainly timing. What is poverty? What is Middle Class? What is rich?

What do these classes matter if there is no money left over for medical emergencies, education, a down payment for a home and savings for investments? This so called, middle class appears to be getting crushed maybe even erased due to it's lack of understanding about money and debt. The middle class has become a mindset more than a financial condition and that mindset has been corrupted with false information and poor financial policy. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/grant-cardone/the-middle-class-has-beco_b_116494.html

not anymore. When I was growing up my family was a "middle class" family. My parents were able to buy a nice house in a nice neighborhood, own two cars, and send their children to college and graduate school. Most summers we went on a vacation, we didn't go to Europe or on cruises but we always had a good holiday. And they were able to save.

The cost of living back in the 60's and 70's was more in line with income. In 1968, my parents bought a 2,500 square foot two story house 45 minutes from New York City for $34,000. My father was probably making somewhere around $25,000. We didn't live extravagantly and my parents were always somewhat frugal, but I never had the sense that there wasn't enough money. It is a different world today.