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Middle class

Tuesday 25th of August 2026

Middle class  All middle class means now is that you're poor but you don't do meth. Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, Jan. 18, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Middle class Far be it from me to deny their value and importance, but a cell phone does not a middle class make. If one lives in a shack, in insalubrious conditions, with a volatile income that is barely above subsistence, and is unable to send his kids to school or offer to his family decent health care, it makes no sense to classify him as part of some imaginary “global middle class” because he can dial a cell phone. Branko Milanovic, The Haves and the Have Nots © 2019 Kwiple.com
Middle class In 1985, an American man working the typical full-time job could support a family of four on 48 weeks of income, and be able to afford a range of nutritious foods, a three-bedroom house, a compre- hensive health insurance plan, a family car, even saving to put both kids through the state university. In 2022, paying for all that would require 62 weeks of his income, which is a problem, there being only 52 weeks in a year.  These figures come from the Cost-of-Thriving Index (Coti), which compares the rate at which wages are rising to the  rate of cost increases for middle-class staples. Oren Cass, Financial Times, February 13, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Middle class It turns out that the middle classes of the new despotisms defy modern social science predictions. Their educaction, occupations and assets incline them to be loyal to the system: they show few of the signs of wanting to walk in the footsteps of the independent- minded, property-owning citizens of the early modern period. … When it comes to democracy, the fickleness of these middle classes is remarkable. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Middle class The middle-class share of the population now ranges from around 50% in the U.S. and Israel to around 70% in Nordic and some other European countries. The U.S. stands out in having a relatively small middle class given its high median income. Among other countries, a higher median income tends to be associated with a larger middle class. Wall Street Journal, April 11, 2019 [The OECD defines middle class as individuals with incomes between 75% and 200% of the median] © 2019 Kwiple.com
Middle class No bourgeoisie, no democracy. Barrington Moore, Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy © 2015 Kwiple.com
Middle class One lesson of the new despotism is that the middle classes have no instinctual love of open power-sharing. Guided by a mixture of motives, including greed, professional and family honor, respectability, and anxiety about about the future, they seem happy to be kidnapped by state rulers, willing (as per the Stockholm syndrome) to be bought off with lavish services, cash payments, and invisible benefits such as being left alone to live their lives. … [They] definitely have a taste for regime stability plus private comforts. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Middle class Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin who is also close to formalising his campaign, has similarly championed his middle-class roots, noting while out on the campaign trail that he is wearing a $1 sweater. Financial Times, April 13, 2015 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Middle class What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard  “Gravity's Gone,” by Drive-By Truckers © 2016 Kwiple.com
 
Serf the middle class Replace their income with debt, then collect the interest © 2015 Kwiple.com