How do you define "middle class"?

Question

How do you define "middle class"?

Answer 1

You don't qualify for handouts to the poor. You can't afford tax attorneys  to avoid paying taxes.

Answer 2

While most people think that they are middle class (there are always poorer people, right?) they are actually lower class.  Especially in today's economy, the middle class in shrinking as wage differences grow.  

The middle class is the professional class, the people that don't really rely on someone for their job, like a photographer or professor.  They are able to move from place to place with their skill set.  These are also the top management in a company that do not own the majority of the company.  More importantly, they are not upper or lower class.

Upper-class, or the bourgoisie, are the people that own the means of production, the machines used on factory lines, or the technology and products used in business, for example.  The lower class are those that have nothing to sell but their labor, and they work for low wages, and are completely dependent upon the upper class for work.  

Just because you aren't poor doesnt mean you are middle-class.  There are pretty much 2 classes, and you would know if you were upper-class.  Anything else is usually lower-class.  At least that's pretty much the Marxist view of it, which is how I define the classes.

Answer 3

Middle class are people who are not very rich, but have enough money to support themselves.  They are people who aren't always facing debt, but might sometimes have a small financial problem.  As long as you can afford to live and have enough money to support yourself, you are concidered middle class.

Answer 4

The middle class, in colloquial usage, consists of those people who have a degree of economic independence, but not a great deal of social influence or power. The term often encompasses merchants and professionals, bureaucrats, and some farmers and skilled workers.

Social hierarchies, and their definitions, vary. There are many factors that can define the middle class of a society, such as money, behaviour and heredity. In some countries, it is predominantly money that determines an individual's position in the social hierarchy. In others, other social factors may have as strong an influence. Such factors include education, professional or employment status, home ownership, or culture.

Connotations attached to the term also vary significantly between and within different countries. In the United States of America and Canada, usage is increasingly broad in scope, but almost always positive in intent

The size of the middle class depends on how it is defined, whether by education, wealth, environment of upbringing, genetic relationships, social network, manners or values, etc. These are all related, though far from deterministically dependent. The following factors are often ascribed in modern usage to a "middle class":

    * Achievement of tertiary education.

    * Holding professional qualifications, including academics, lawyers, engineers, doctors, and clergymen regardless of their leisure or wealth.

    * Belief in bourgeois values, such as high rates of house or long-term lease ownership and jobs which are perceived to be "secure." In the United States, Canada, and in the United Kingdom, politicians typically target the votes of the middle classes.

    * Lifestyle. In the United Kingdom, social status has historically been linked less directly to wealth than in the United States, and has also been judged by pointers such as accent, manners, place of education, occupation and the class of a person's family, circle of friends and acquaintances.

    * Cultural identification. Often in the United States, the middle class are the most eager participants in pop culture. The second generation of new immigrants will often enthusiastically forsake their traditional folk culture as a sign of having arrived in the middle class.

Answer 5

Between 40 and 60,000 a year.

Answer 6

Upper class means that you do not have to work full-time to make a living, either because you inherited your money or you live off of investments.  CEOs, investment bankers, high-profile lawyers, etc. who work 60+ hours are still upper class because if they got fired tomorrow, they would still be able to live off of their net worth, most likely quite comfortably.

Lower class is when you have a full-time job and still can't feed, house, or clothe your children without public assistance.  it is shameful that some political commentators believe that the working poor have "chosen" their socio-economic status.

Middle class is the 90% of society that does not fit either category.

Answer 7

You ain't the richest dude in the world and neither are you a beggar

Answer 8

if your not poor...

and your not rich....

and your hopelessly stuck in the middle...

you are middle class.

Answer 9

middle class is where u do a job that doesnt involve a great deal of manual labour and is generally better paid, ie business people, teachers, officers in the army and doctors etc. upper class is where u r so rich u dont have to work ie the queen, dukes and stuff, working class is where u do the lowest jobs ie bin men etc