I don’t think many people realize that cost of living has increased so much that the lifestyle we used to associate with the middle class now isn’t available until 100k without kids or significantly more with kids. Income for the 0-89th percentile has gone down in real terms for decades. 90th to 99th has held stagnant against inflation. Only that top 1 percent has been beating inflation, and they’ve been really beating it. Rand estimated that there’s been a transfer of something like 47 Trillion USD (not a typo) from the rest of us into the top 1 percent since 1975.
I don’t think many people realize that cost of living has increased so much that the lifestyle we used to associate with the middle class now isn’t available until 100k without kids or significantly more with kids. Income for the 0-89th percentile has gone down in real terms for decades. 90th to 99th has held stagnant against inflation. Only that top 1 percent has been beating inflation, and they’ve been really beating it. Rand estimated that there’s been a transfer of something like 47 Trillion USD (not a typo) from the rest of us into the top 1 percent since 1975.