It's because of our middle class attempt at living extravagantly. Our middle class lives far above the middle class lifestyle of other countries. Even our lower class incomes live well, and are compared to middle class in other countries. In many of the socialist countries, there is no real middle class. It is either one lower middle class or the wealthy class. No real medium class. That's because when you have socialism, you end up with only two classes, almost eliminating the middle class. They do raise the lifestyle of the lower ranks, but the upper class thrives in those countries.

I'd like to read more about that. Where did you get your information?

I just wrote it...:)

It's called living overseas in many different countries. Gaining living experience real-time. I've only been back in America since the end of 2008. You don't have to believe me when I say that there is NOTHING out there in any of those countries that I would trade our American standards for, to have here. We have it so great here.

Just one example of the difference is when you go through the process of obtaining a drivers license or car registration in other countries. You would not believe the bureaucracy. Ok, not related to middle class comparison.

Or, go to a supposed middle class income home and look at the lack of floor space, or maybe they only have one TV. One country I lived in, only had city water at your home for certain hours of the day. High speed internet was not a middle class necessity in some countries. They were lucky to have dial up. One country in South America had one A/C unit in the main bedroom, and that was a middle class earner with an additional side business and his wife working also. I spent plenty of time at that family's home on the weekends. Yes, they had socialized health care, if you want to call it that. My friend in Panama sent his two children to the U.S. for college even though they had finished their "free' college in their own country. It was equivalent to finishing high school here. It was like a junior college, but on a high school level.

Nope, our middle class lives VERY WELL compared to other countries. But, I will bet there will be someone on here that will dispute my comment, by telling me about some place that has some better deal. We'll see, won't we? I know that I am grateful to be here in the U.S. of A. and also to be able to afford to retire modestly.

Thanks for sharing. Are you at liberty to say what countries you lived in?

Does this seem accurate?
Distribution of net worth in the United States (2007).[13] The net wealth of many people in the lowest 20% is negative because of debt.[13] By 2014 the wealth gap deepened.
Top 1% (34.6%)
Next 4% (27.3%)
Next 5% (11.2%)
Next 10% (12%)
Upper Middle 20% (10.9%)
Middle 20% (4%)
Bottom 40% (0.2%)

http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_589.pdf

It's dated but the trend is not going in a better direction for the middle class.

More and more regulation does not give much incentive to small business entrepreneurs. And the more liberal our country becomes, the more regulatory rules the small guy has to hurdle. On the other hand, in the last couple of decades we have seen an great increase in millionaires. Although, I believe that the number has fallen somewhat since 2007. You can't have an increase in employment and higher wages without demand. It's not the job of the government to regulate how much one must get paid for a specific job.

But, this has nothing to do with colleges funding illegal aliens. All I know is that many college students have complained about not being able to get a seat in a required class for the course they were taking. It is not going to sit very well with those students if now they are going to have to stand in line with illegal aliens and compete for the same seats in a class. Not to mention how much they have to spend for tuition when the gov wants to subsidize illegals. And they wonder why people are getting mad and coming out in record highs to vote for Trump. They are fed up.

I think many more then Trump voters are fed up. And in a way I can understand all the backbiting and name calling that goes on in these threads. Everybody's angry and filtering is not PC.

I'm not so sure how we got onto the middle class discussion in this thread and perhaps it needs it's own thread. This would not be the first thread that veered off topic. Most do.

I think I've stumbled upon something that is difficult appreciate until you crunch the numbers. That's why I asked for opinions.