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Half the World Is Now Middle Class Or Wealthier, Says Brookings Institution (brookings.edu)
schwit1 shares a report from the Brookings Institution: Something of enormous global significance is happening almost without notice. For the first time since agriculture-based civilization began 10,000 years ago, the majority of humankind is no longer poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty. By our calculations, as of this month, just over 50 percent of the world's population, or some 3.8 billion people, live in households with enough discretionary expenditure to be considered "middle class" or "rich." About the same number of people are living in households that are poor or vulnerable to poverty. So September 2018 marks a global tipping point. After this, for the first time ever, the poor and vulnerable will no longer be a majority in the world. Barring some unfortunate global economic setback, this marks the start of a new era of a middle-class majority.
In most countries, there is a clear relationship between the fate of the middle class and the happiness of the population. According to the Gallup World Poll, new entrants into the middle class are noticeably happier than those stuck in poverty or in vulnerable households. Conversely, individuals in countries where the middle class is shrinking report greater degrees of personal stress. The middle class also puts pressure on governments to perform better. They look to their governments to provide affordable housing, education, and universal health care. They rely on public safety nets to help them in sickness, unemployment or old age. But they resist efforts of governments to impose taxes to pay the bills. This complicates the politics of middle-class societies, so they range from autocratic to liberal democracies. Many advanced and middle-income countries today are struggling to find a set of politics that can satisfy a broad middle-class majority. The tipping point in the world today offers opportunities for business but complications for policymakers.
In most countries, there is a clear relationship between the fate of the middle class and the happiness of the population. According to the Gallup World Poll, new entrants into the middle class are noticeably happier than those stuck in poverty or in vulnerable households. Conversely, individuals in countries where the middle class is shrinking report greater degrees of personal stress. The middle class also puts pressure on governments to perform better. They look to their governments to provide affordable housing, education, and universal health care. They rely on public safety nets to help them in sickness, unemployment or old age. But they resist efforts of governments to impose taxes to pay the bills. This complicates the politics of middle-class societies, so they range from autocratic to liberal democracies. Many advanced and middle-income countries today are struggling to find a set of politics that can satisfy a broad middle-class majority. The tipping point in the world today offers opportunities for business but complications for policymakers.
so that boils down to "50% of people earns more than average"?
No, they just lowered the definition of ‘middle class’.
Also that average is strongly skewed upward due to a very small minority of people in the US being obscenely rich. If you'd perform some statistical cleanup of those outliers, you'd probably get closer to an average US income of ordinary citizens of around 44k.
Definition of "middle class" used by researchers is ability to spend at least 11$ per day per person.
At least 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That's not middle class and it's certainly not "no longer at risk of poverty".
You trot out this sort of statistic every time. A quick look at some actual facts will show you that the issue is more complex than that. Also, it would help if you stuck to a consistent set of figures. Here is you a few days ago claiming the number is 78% percent.
Yes, I know that "at least 60%" can be considered to cover 78% as well, but the fact that you chose the stronger number the fist time a few days ago and then softened your statement this time makes me think you don't actually believe the number or they are bogus.
Then, here is me using top of the line smart phone sales numbers to show that a good portion of those supposedly living pay check to pay check are still possessed of a considerable amount of disposable income. Of course, I was modded "troll" for my trouble.
The bottom line, is we can't both be in an era where most people are in danger of falling into poverty at any moment and at the same time be in an era where most people have more discretionary income than at any time in history. Given the people I know and the choices I see them make, I am going to stick with: people (at least in the US) who live pay check to pay check mostly live that way because they fully embrace consumerism as a way of life.
The top 1% earn about $1.5 million on average; the top 25% average about $139,000. And that is several tiers down...
The median and mean household income is also quite close, being around $75,000 and $72,000 respectively.
I know it's popular to push a "hate the rich" meme on many places, but the data does not support the huge income disparity so often claimed. Median and mean incomes are close together, income disparity from the top 1% down to the bottom 50% is about 80 (which is significantly less than your estimate of 300 from the top 1% to the next tier, which would be top 5%), and in general wages are up an average of 4% annually for the last 18 months or so.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
This is the graph you are looking for:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/...
https://www.census.gov/library...
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
That's the British definition of middle class. The American definition of middle class is anybody with a roof over their head and less than 3 airplanes in their garage/hanger. And yet we also constantly say the middle class is struggling to make ends meet, and demand that our politicians fight for the middle class.
There is no working class in America -- it's poor, middle, rich with 90% considering themselves to be in the middle. Okay I exaggerated slightly, research shows just 70% claim middle classhood.
As for the world middle class, if you define middle class as being actually in the middle then it has always been true that half the people are above average.
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