We might be better off dropping the term "middle class" for the truth

Middle class ... or working class?

Ten years or so back, when I was working in Southern California, I attended a conference for media covering business entitled "The Middle Class on Life Support."

Its premise was that it was becoming impossible in many parts of California to live a middle-class lifestyle -- the so-called "American Dream" -- on a middle-class income.

Conferences like that always have to begin with defining terms, because if you were to ask 100 random Americans where they fit in financially, 90 would say they were middle class.

Well, let's define some terms.

On a scale of 0-100, those folks in the 41st percentile up to the 60th would be considered middle class. We can call 21-40 lower middle class and 61-80 upper middle class. Those between 1-20 would be lower class and those from 81-100 would be upper class.


In California at the time, 41-60 would contain an income range of about $44,000 to about $65,000 for a family of four. The "expanded" middle class (21-80) would include incomes ranging from about $25,000 up to about $90,000. Make less than $25,000, you're poor. More than $90,000, you're rich.

I hope you can see the flaws already. In major California cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles or San Diego, an income of $90,000 for a family of four doesn't buy a lot. If it buys you a house, it's one about 100 miles away from your job, leaving you living in your car four or five hours a day just to get to and from work.

It certainly doesn't cover things like private schools or vacations. It also doesn't cover much in the way of savings. Sending your kids to college is a stretch, unless you mean two years of community college and two other years at a state school while you live at home.


And if you're making $25,000 with a family of four and living in a high-cost area? Forget owning a home, unless it has been in your family for a long time. Otherwise, you'll be renting an apartment, and often in a not-so-nice neighborhood.

Forget saving any money. On the contrary, at that income level, you've probably got a lot more debt than you have savings.

The term "middle class" implies the mainstream, people who have an investment in a stable society. Folks who have some skin in the game.

At least half the people who call themselves middle class are probably deluding themselves. Surveys have said that 70 percent of American families are in a position where they're living from paycheck to paycheck, just barely getting by.

These folks aren't middle class. They're working class, and most of them have no realistic prospects of improving themselves in a society where millions of the good entry-level, move-up jobs have long disappeared overseas.

In 1950, a little more than a third of married women worked outside the home. Most recent statistics put the level now at about 75 percent.

I certainly don't want to make this an anti-feminist rant, because it isn't, but we've got millions of "latchkey" children who are essentially raising themselves. And that's not good.

Having a parent -- a mom or a dad -- at home in the afternoons when a kid gets home from school is a good thing in so many ways.

At the very least, it helps keep otherwise isolated children in touch with other people. It helps to socialize them. It also gives them somewhere to turn when they have problems.

It also -- in ideal circumstances -- shows them that someone cares about them. That someone loves them.

There's one fascinating thing about the entire debate.

I mentioned earlier that 90 percent of Americans refer to themselves as middle class when they're polled. If you ask the same question in the United Kingdom, you get a very different answer. Roughly two-thirds of them say they consider themselves "working class" when they are polled.

I don't know if they're any smarter than we are. Maybe they're just more realistic. Maybe our "American Dream" blinds us to reality.

The late comedian George Carlin said that the reason they call it the American Dream is that to believe it anymore, you have to be asleep.

I think we have a lot of delusions about ourselves and our society. I heard a story once about two men who worked for a construction company. One man stood around, leaning on his shovel, and said to anyone who would listen, "Someday I'm going to own this company." The other didn't talk much and never bragged, but he was the first one to show up every day and the last one to leave. He always asked if there was anything he could do to help, and he was eager to learn new skills.

It isn't hard to guess which one had a better chance of owning that company someday. Of course, I could be cynical and say it was the first guy, because he was working for his dad. But let's not go there.

We're in a pretty crummy spot right now. High unemployment that realistically is probably twice what the government tells us it is. A tough economy.

But let's face it. A lot of us got lazy and thought the world owed us a living. We need to get past that and start working hard again.

We're the first guy, but we need to become the second one.

We need to stop thinking of ourselves as middle class. There's no shame in being working class. None at all.