Why Politicians Embrace the Middle Class

Journalist Ezra Klein tells us that, “Politicians love the middle class. They just don’t know what it is.”

A Middle Class Definition

Taking us closer to a definition, for a 2024 survey, Gallup asked participants to self-identify their social class. At 54%, more than half said they were in the middle:

Then, looking more closely, Gallup observed that income and education influenced the social class named by Americans. In addition, their numbers indicate the differences among Democrats, Independents, and Republicans:

Next, moving away from Gallup, we can shift to the broader perspective expressed by NY Times journalist David Brooks:

“To be middle class is to have money to spend on non-necessities. But it also involves a shift in values. Middle-class parents have fewer kids but spend more time and money cultivating each one. They often adopt the bourgeois values — emphasizing industry, prudence, ambition, neatness, order, moderation and continual self-improvement. They teach their children to lead different lives from their own, and as Karl Marx was among the first to observe, unleash a relentless spirit of improvement and openness that alters every ancient institution.”

Our Bottom Line: Cash, Credentials, and Culture

So yes, we can use three words to summarize the characteristics of the American middle class. However, starting with cash, we immediately disagree because it all depends on the income percentile selected by a scholar. One group of researchers focuses on households in the 30th to 90th percentiles of a nation’s income distribution. Pew uses two-thirds and twice the national median as their middle class income threshold. Then, tweaking that slightly, Kreuger’s bands extends from 50% to 150% of the income median:

Then, credentials take us to education and jobs while culture echoes most of what David Brooks said.

At this point, we can ask, “Why care?” The answer is the policies that target a certain group. Don’t they need to know who?

My sources and more: After looking at a recent Gallup survey, at a past David Brooks NY Times column, and at a Brookings article, we can wind up with a pretty good definition of the middle class. By contrast, here, Ezra Klein says defining the middle class could be impossible. impossible. And finally, it is possible that the middle class is shrinking.

Our featured image is from Mother Jones/Kelsey Drake.