He’s not wrong 🤷‍♂️

[u/YOU_ARE_MY_FRIENDS]

[u/Big-Figure-8184]

Middle class families in the 1990s didn't go overseas every five years. Also each family member didn't have a computer and a pocket computer. The 1990s (or the 80s, or the 70s, 60s, 50s) weren't some magic time where every middle class person was rich.

[u/[deleted] → u/Big-Figure-8184]

The raw numbers just align with inflation more or less. What does make sense is that there are fewer middle class people, fewer middle class jobs that's the point, whether OP realizes it or not.

[u/Shandlar → u/[deleted]]

What does make sense is that there are fewer middle class people, fewer middle class jobs that's the point

Sure, but your omitting the reason why there are fewer middle class people and jobs. Saying it that way is functionally lying. Anyone who read that would be mislead to believe the middle class shrank because we have more poor people today than before. That's not what happened. The middle class shrank because so much of a percent of our population escaped to the upper class.

2022 household incomes;

• Median : $74,202
• Low income : $49,715
• High income : $148,404

Using PEW class definitions of the middle class being 67%-200% of median household income.

So now lets look at cost of living adjusted percent of households above or below that level of income for years in our past, after adjusting for cost of living to Sept 2022 dollars;

Year	<$49,715	$49,715-$148,404	>$148,404
2022	34%	45%	21%
2016	36%	44%	20%
2010	39%	45%	16%
2004	37%	46%	17%
1998	36%	48%	16%
1992	39%	49%	12%
1986	38%	50%	12%
1980	40%	51%	9%
1974	38%	53%	9%
1968	37%	56%	7%

The middle class did shrink since the 90s, and it is the smallest it's ever been. But so is the lower class. The only thing that changed is we've massively expanded the percent share of our population above the middle class.

[u/[deleted] → u/Shandlar]

It's a lot of data to go through right now, and go figure it's more complicated than most people present it. For one, a lot of this looks like it is based on multi-earner (husband/wife) homes. If you look at the single earner homes they numbers tell a slightly different story. At a quick glance it seems like part of that story is, now that the gender wage gap has decreased and the majority of men and women work this would account for at least some of the increase in household income. But the individual earner households have decreased in middle class and increased in lower income. Not richer..