April 25, 2009

Clarifying Middle Class

Here is a chart that makes clear exactly what being middle class means in terms of income: an average annual household after tax income for the middle fifth of households in 2006 of $52,100. Simple interpolation suggests that the top of the middle income group is around $62,950.

Yglesias thinks the chart as a whole implies that:

...the trend is unmistakable. Higher taxes, more transfers, and more government services.
This is undoubtedly true as long as so many believe that government's role, as our politicians state repeatedly, is focused on protecting and assisting those in the lower 2-3 quintiles.

The chart makes makes a pretty good case, though, that government actions have been around protecting and enhancing the wealth and power of that upper 20% and most particularly the upper 1%.

More taxes, transfers and services are palliatives applied to win votes and do little, if anything, to fix the structural problems that lead to such a poor distribution of income.

The only effective way to make the results among the quintiles more equal will be to change the structure of the economy so that the top 1% is no longer favored. This will require eliminating the extensive government interventions that feed the wealthy on the backs of the poor; on the backs, if you will, of the lower 90+%.

Posted by Steve on April 25, 2009
follow me on Twitter