What it means to be middle class today

[senior citizen]

http://money.msn.com/personal-finance/what-it-means-to-be-middle-class-today (http://money.msn.com/personal-finance/what-it-means-to-be-middle-class-today)


"Is middle class the new poor?" Who agrees with that statement?


One fellow was making $10.55 per hour in 1980 (high school grad).
Now is making $15. an hour (college grad).

[bkcunningham1]

The ongoing TOTV's threads about the historic side of TV made me think about something. These homes were the retirement and vacation homes of the middle class 18 to 25 years ago. The retirement/vacation homes of the middle class are now the homes in areas like Collier, Hillsborough, Lake Deaton, Charlotte and Gilchrist areas. Just something to ponder.

[BarryRX]

You first have to define "middle class". The requirements I see most often are usually 1) a household income between 50 - 100,000, 2) a secure job with health insurance. Since the median household income is about $65,000, I think this is pretty accurate.

[buggyone]

To me, I would say the new areas of The Villages represents the dream homes of the newer crowd of Villagers. We have worked hard for this for our careers and now want to enjoy to the fullest. To most, I think, that does not mean skimping on a economy sized home but to get the best we can afford while young enough to enjoy it to the maximum.

The historic side, I believe, when being sold in the early '80's, were our parent's generation who had to save during their jobs and did not want to spend as much in retirement but were happy also in just having their moderate needs.

[graciegirl]

There is a varied income history here in The Villages, but most villagers don't care about what you used to be and how much money you have. You can be sitting at Lake Sumter next to a past CEO and a person who worked all their life as a server. It just isn't important to most of us. We are here. We all live like millionaires.

[BobnBev]

there is a varied income history here in the villages, but most villagers don't care about what you used to be and how much money you have. You can be sitting at lake sumter next to a past ceo and a person who worked all their life as a server. It just isn't important to most of us. We are here. We all live like millionaires.

amen

[Villages PL]

There is a varied income history here in The Villages, but most villagers don't care about what you used to be and how much money you have. You can be sitting at Lake Sumter next to a past CEO and a person who worked all their life as a server. It just isn't important to most of us. We are here. We all live like millionaires.

I agree. When I lived on the historic side, I belonged to a neighborhood group and we would get together for various activities, mostly eating out.
One in the group had been a waitress who worked at the World Trade Center. Another, I later learned after she died, was the CEO of a company. (I read it in the Daily Sun Obituary.)

It was just as you said. It's not important when you get together to have fun.

[senior citizen]

Although important, of course, to be accepting of all people, this was not a question of being kind or accepting of those from various social economic groups........that is a given. We choose our own friends based on their kindness & goodness, NOT on their bank rolls. In a small town, all the various socio economic groups fraternize together........there are very few neighborhoods that are "segrated by the price of homes" as the wheels of progress move so slowly up here.......new developement is rare. Most of you would not care to live in an old New England style home, given your myriad choices of beautiful ultra modern houses. Very little new construction happens, if at all......unless someone buys some acreage & custom builds their own home.

Our kids all go to the same schools; the lower & upper plus "MIDDLE" sit in class together. Some of our college professors "kids" look poor, but are not. Ditto for the doctors/lawyers' kids......they all want to fit in with the rest of the children from less affluent homes. When our children had all kinds of friends over to our home to swim in our inground pool, they'd crack me up with, "Oh you have the best sunshine in town". Or , "You have so much fruit in your fruitbowl.", "My mom won't buy fruit as its too expensive".....I treated them all the same.

Our children had friends from all walks of life.......as do we; never forgetting that our parents were the children of poor immigrants themselves.......and raised in poor homes. Perhaps that is why in the early 1950's they felt they were living the good life, even though mine both were factory workers. We, obviously did better than them, plus were able to send our two to college & then grad school, plus take two or more vacations per year on one income.......but we still enjoy all sorts of people, remembering the humble lives our grandparents lived as new immigrants to America.

Although I was a "latch key kid" of the 1950's with two working parents, I myself had the luxury of being able to remain a "stay at home mom" which was my decision, one I do not regret........living in a chaos free home, with well balanced children who are now successful parents themselves, with great careers that make them happy..............Once they were in high school/college, I had my own little mail order business which developed out of a hobby/interest. No regrets.

We raised our family in 1968/1970's/80's quite sucessfully on one income...........but nowadays that is quite difficult, as I can see with the younger gals. I preferred that routine chaos-free life to one of rush rush rush with no time to listen to the children or "hubby" but at least had the choice......as my mom did not.

I hated coming home to an empty house, as a child (I was the Ozzie & Harriet/Leave it to Beaver generation thanks to my working mom supplementing my father's income......& we aspired to have a family life as depicted back then)........(later the Roseanne Barr generation came on t.v. & the homes began looking quite a mess). Nowadays many of these young working women have cleaning "staff" come in to do what I & my peers did, plus takeout restaurants all around them, plus "nannies" or daycare for the children........I realize times have changed. WE ARE OLD........


FROM TIME MAGAZINE.......a few years ago....
""Class is an inherently nebulous concept, and although the U.S. government defines poverty (presently, it's anything under $22,000 for a family of four), it does not define what it means to be middle class. The U.S. Census Bureau says the median income in the U.S. is about $51,000 a year, but how far does the "middle" stretch? According to a 2008 Pew Research Center survey, half of Americans self-identify as middle class. ""


""Our modern image of the middle class comes from the post–World War II era. The 1944 GI Bill provided returning veterans with money for college, businesses and home mortgages. Suddenly, millions of servicemen were able to afford homes of their own for the first time. As a result, residential construction jumped from 114,000 new homes in 1944 to 1.7 million in 1950. In 1947, William Levitt turned 4,000 acres of Long Island, New York, potato farms into the then largest privately planned housing project in American history. With 30 houses built in assembly-line fashion every day — each with a tree in the front yard — the American subdivision was born.""


""Then came the cars. And the backyard barbecues. And the black-and-white TVs. Ozzy and Harriet, Lucy and Ricky, Leave it to Beaver. In September 1958, Bank of America tested its first 60,000 credit cards (later named Visa) in Fresno, Calif. Within a decade, Americans had signed up for more than 100 million credit cards. Today, the number tops 1 billion. African Americans were able to pull themselves into the middle-class bracket through the social gains of the civil rights movement, though a disproportionate number still live below the poverty line. ""


""Today, most middle-class Americans are homeowners. They have mortgages, at least some college education and a professional or managerial job that earns them somewhere between $30,000 and $100,000 a year. Although the suburban stereotype still holds, the middle class is just as likely to be found in urban centers (rural, not so much), and 70% of them have cable and two or more cars. Two-thirds have high-speed Internet, and 40% own a flat-screen TV. They have several credit cards each and a lot of luxury goods, but they still believe that others have more than they do. In 1970, TIME described middle America as people who "sing the national anthem at football games — and mean it." ""


""Some have attempted to define middle-class Americans as people who would find it difficult to miss more than two paychecks, and he wasn't far off; with wage increases failing to keep pace with inflation about 21% of middle-class Americans have spent themselves to the limit. Personal bankruptcies rose by a third last year and mortgagedefaults— well, they're moving beyond subprime borrowers and hitting those with previously high credit scores. ""

""EXPERTS are discussing the rescue of the middle class. Their first task? Creating green jobs. The committee believes that building environmentally friendly homes will help decrease middle-class homeowners' electricity and heating bills. That is, of course, if they have a home they can still afford.""
　

[graciegirl]

I don't know. To me you are rich if you live inside your income, can save for a disaster and are happy with what you have. I could do without a lot if I had my loved ones and enough to get by.

[manaboutown]

This sums it up nicely. American middle class - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class)

[billethkid]

I am always wary of those who always have to be talking about who they are or what they did or what they have....who they were, to establish ranking of some sort.

For most of us the most important things are those in front of us right here and now. When the trappings of life are removed is when we see the real person.

[perrjojo]

When we were younger our income was FAR less than now. Through the years we have worked our way up. Funny thing is that I have ALWAYS thought we were middle class. I think it is more of a mental attitude than dollars and cents.

[Blessed2BNTV]

There is a varied income history here in The Villages, but most villagers don't care about what you used to be and how much money you have. You can be sitting at Lake Sumter next to a past CEO and a person who worked all their life as a server. It just isn't important to most of us. We are here. We all live like millionaires.

What she said.......:)

[OCsun]

There is a varied income history here in The Villages, but most villagers don't care about what you used to be and how much money you have. You can be sitting at Lake Sumter next to a past CEO and a person who worked all their life as a server. It just isn't important to most of us. We are here. We all live like millionaires.

Graciegirl, You are spot on!

This is one of the things I love the most about TV. Whenever I meet people, they ask, which villages you live in, how long have you lived in TV, what activities do you like to do, where did you moved from.

It is so good to no longer be asked . . . What do you and your husband do for a living?
I never wanted what I did, where I was educated or what I had acquired in life to define me.

[TNLAKEPANDA]

The important thing is that you have CLASS no matter what your status might be or how poor or rich you might be. Most of our close friends do not have a lot of money but they are classy people and would do anything for their friends.