What is Middle Class?

That's a good question. My first thought went to absolute dollars in income, but I almost immediately realized that it's more complicated than that. I think of middle class as those in between poor and wealthy (and it's not an equal distribution between those extremes). But there are also breakdowns within the middle class of lower-middle class who are at high risk of slipping back into the poor category be it through a traumatic event (losing a job, becoming gravely ill, loss of a spouse, etc), plain old middle class who are at risk but not as acutely as the lower-middle, and upper-middle class who are strongly stable (i.e. even if they lose a job, they have investments or other opportunities to pursue in order to recover lost income quickly) and have good opportunity to become wealthy.

What is middle class, anyway?

Thoughts on this? I've seen other stories that many people are moving out of Colorado because it's getting to expensive to afford to live. If wages don't keep up, those in the middle class struggle and incur credit card debt, or fall back to lower class levels despite still working hard. Yet, we keep hearing that we can't raise the minimum wage because that hurts business.

The tax bill that was just passed has created much controversy over whether it will help or hurt the middle class. It certainly helps businesses and the assumption that by helping business, you help workers and consumers seems tenuous at best. Our economy is doing well, the stock market is at all-time highs, and the unemployment rate is low; the problem to me is that we don't have decent living wages. People have jobs, they aren't making enough.

New report shows Colorado's economy is booming, but wages aren't keeping up
By Jennifer Kovaleski
Jan 12, 2018

DENVER -- A new report from the Bell Policy Center, a progressive-leaning think tank, found Colorado's economy is booming but wages aren't keeping up with the growing cost of living.

"I'm not making what I feel like I should be making, it's terrible out here," worker Joshua Adams said.

"The wage growth rate is lagging behind," University of Denver professor of finance Mac Clouse said.

Clouse pointed to a staggering figure in the report which found when adjusted for inflation, Colorado's average weekly wages have only risen $33 since 2000.