{"id":53523,"date":"2013-02-01T11:30:14","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T16:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=53523"},"modified":"2013-01-27T13:58:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-27T18:58:46","slug":"wall-st-to-middle-class-youve-got-it-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2013\/02\/01\/wall-st-to-middle-class-youve-got-it-made\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall St. to the Middle Class: “You\u2019ve Got It Made!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Montclair SocioBlog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal<\/em> had an\u00a0op-ed<\/a>\u00a0this week by Donald Boudreaux and Mark Perry claiming that things are great for the middle class.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

No single measure of well-being is more informative or important than life expectancy. Happily, an American born today can expect to live approximately 79 years \u2014 a full five years longer than in 1980 and more than a decade longer than in 1950.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, but.\u00a0 If life-expectancy is the all-important measure of well-being, then we Americans are less well off than are people in many other countries, including Cuba.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The authors also claim that we\u2019re better off because things are cheaper:<\/p>\n

…spending by households on many of modern life’s “basics” \u2014 food at home, automobiles, clothing and footwear, household furnishings and equipment, and housing and utilities \u2014 fell from 53% of disposable income in 1950 to 44% in 1970 to 32% today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Globalization probably has much to do with these lower costs.\u00a0 But when I reread the list of \u201cbasics,\u201d I noticed that a couple of items were missing, items less likely to be imported or outsourced, like housing and health care. \u00a0So, we\u2019re spending less on food and clothes, but more on health care and houses. Take housing. \u00a0The median home values for childless couples increased by 26% between just 1984 and 2001 (inflation-adjusted); for married couples with children, who are competing to get into good school districts, median home value ballooned by 78% (source<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The authors also make the argument that technology reduces the consuming gap between the rich and the middle class.\u00a0 There\u2019s not much difference between the iPhone that I can buy and the one that Mitt Romney has.\u00a0 True, but it says only that products filter down through the economic strata just as they always have.\u00a0 The first ball-point pens cost as much as dinner for two in a fine restaurant.\u00a0 But if we look forward, not back, we know that tomorrow the wealthy will be playing with some new toy most of us cannot afford. Then, in a few years, prices will come down, everyone will have one, and by that time the wealthy will have moved on to something else for us to envy.<\/p>\n

The readers and editors of the Wall Street Journal<\/em> may find comfort in hearing Boudreaux and Perry\u2019s good news about the middle class.\u00a0 Middle-class people themselves, however, may be a bit skeptical on being told that they\u2019ve never had it so good (source<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of the people in the Gallup sample are not middle class, and they may contribute disproportionately to the pessimistic side.\u00a0 But Boudreaux and Perry do not specify who they include as middle class.\u00a0 But it\u2019s the trend in the lines that is important.\u00a0 Despite the iPhones, airline tickets, laptops and other consumer goods the authors mention, fewer people feel that they have enough money to live comfortably.<\/p>\n

Boudreaux and Perry insist that the middle-class stagnation is a myth, though they also say that<\/p>\n

The average hourly wage in real dollars has remained largely unchanged from at least 1964\u2014when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started reporting it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently\u201clargely unchanged\u201d is completely different from \u201cstagnation.\u201d\u00a0 But, as even the mainstream media have reported, some incomes have changed quite a bit (source<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The top 10% and especially the top 1% have done well in this century.\u00a0 The 90%, not so much. You don\u2019t have to be too much of a Marxist to think that maybe the Wall Street Journal<\/em> crowd has some ulterior motive in telling the middle class that all is well and getting better all the time.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Jay Livingston is\u00a0the\u00a0chair of the Sociology Department at\u00a0Montclair State University<\/a>. \u00a0You can follow him at\u00a0Montclair SocioBlog<\/a>\u00a0or on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Montclair SocioBlog. The Wall Street Journal had an\u00a0op-ed\u00a0this week by Donald Boudreaux and Mark Perry claiming that things are great for the middle class.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why: No single measure of well-being is more informative or important than life expectancy. Happily, an American born today can expect to live approximately 79 years \u2014 a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,229,23384,36,12498,252,8080],"class_list":["post-53523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-class","tag-consumption","tag-social-construction-discourselanguage","tag-economics","tag-economics-great-recession","tag-healthmedicine","tag-housingresidential-segregation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53523"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53573,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53523\/revisions\/53573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}