Before Reagan became President, ‘middle class’ was still defined as one job being able to support a family of four. By the time Bush Sr. left office, ‘middle class’ was two incomes to keep the house going. At the same time, $1 million went from being a vast personal fortune to what a rich guy paid for a party.
TIL I’m now lower class.
I knew what I was going to find when I looked for my state and find out I’m even poorer than I thought I was 😣
I wonder how they set those endpoints and how they have changed over the years.
It’s all based on the median household income. I feel like that isn’t the best representation if the median household is losing purchasing power over time due to wage stagnation, but it’s the definition they went with. From the article:
The report, which crunched the numbers for all 50 states, is based on Pew Research’s definition of middle class: two-thirds to double the median household income.
Yeah I see now. I think I can calculate a meaningful upper bound using the GINI index. I’ll see if I can work out numbers that look plausible, and make another post sometime.
Hawaii
Low end of middle class: $63,542
High end of middle class: $190,644
Median household income: $95,322
I’m guessing “a shit ton”
