Middle Class Poorer, Study That Comes As No Surprise To Anyone Reveals

The middle class is poorer in America compared to its status in 2000, a survey that many of the free-market huggers will be sure to deem “class warfare” reveals.

The hallmarks of the poorer middle class are all well-documented and frequent in their media mention, as formerly standard quality of living benchmarks like access to needed medical care, stable home ownership, job security and basic education fall to the wayside in an economically and philosophically depressed US.

The new study on the middle class being poorer over the past decade and change was released today by researchers at Pew Social & Demographic Trends, and the polling institute didn’t work the data to make it more palatable for readers.

NPR quotes a section of the Pew Research on a poorer middle class, indicating that while the causes of a wealth shift are not unanimously agreed upon by individuals who believe they are now or were once in the middle class, mostly everyone can agree the middle class is poorer, and starkly so:

“Fully 85% of self-described middle-class adults say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living.”

“Of those who feel this way, 62% say ‘a lot’ of the blame lies with Congress, while 54% say the same about banks and financial institutions, 47% about large corporations, 44% about the Bush administration, 39% about foreign competition and 34% about the Obama administration. Just 8% blame the middle class itself a lot.”

Of the hundreds polled by Pew about a poorer middle class, 52% believed President Barack Obama’s economic policies will help lift the bulk of America’s families out of the financial quagmire in which they find themselves, while 38% do not believe the president’s policies are beneficial.