1. Why do upper socioeconomic status and lower socioeconomic sta.docx
Extreme Ineqality
1. Long Live the Statistical
Middle Class!
A PRESENTATION BY SAM PIZZIGATI
Institute for Policy Studies
Washington, D.C.
HOW CLASS WORKS
Center for Study of Working Class Life
JUNE 5, 2008
2. What is the historic mission of the working class?
The classic answer
To overthrow the class system
A more modest answer
To create a middle class society
3. The Push-Back
‘Middle class’ a sloppy formulation that obfuscates
the exploitation of one class by another.
‘Middle classness’ repudiates the core working class
values no decent society can ever afford to marginalize.
7. ‘Middle classness’ inverts working class values
Not respect for physical labor
. . . but distaste
Not solidarity
. . . but rushing to get ahead
Not skepticism toward privilege and power
. . . but a need to be accepted by the privileged and powerful
8. Which values more admirable?
Working Class Middle Class
Respect for physical labor Distaste for physical labor
Solidarity Getting ahead
Skepticism toward privilege Yearning for acceptance by privilege
9. So why should a middle class society be our goal?
Because we’re not
talking ‘middle class’
here as a historical
construct, with
whatever baggage
that may carry
We’re talking middle
class as a statistical
phenomenon
10. What’s the difference?
Ruling class
Middle by position
The middle class as Middle class
in the social structure
a historical construct
Working class
11. The statistical middle class
Average U.S. Incomes, 2008
$1,485,000
Statistical
middle
class
$256,000
Statistical middle class
$117,000
$67,300
$40,800
$24,900
$12,200
Lowest Second Third 20% Fourth Next 15% Next 4% Top 1%
20% 20% 20%
Source: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Tax Model, March 2007
12. The emerging global standard
The statistical middle class
$24,101 $96,402
Half median to twice median
$48,201
$0 $250,000
Median Income
2006: U.S.
Census Bureau
13. What do we know about the statistical middle class?
The greater the share of a
society’s households in the
statistical middle class, the
better the society for everyone
Low-Income High-Income
Half median to twice median
The Statistical Middle Class
14. How do we know this?
An explosion of research on what happens when societies
have large middle classes — and when they don’t.
Economists
Epidemiologists
Psychologists
Political scientists
Sociologists
Demographers
Environmental scientists
15. A wealth of findings about wealth distribution
The more statistically middle class a society,
the better the society for all the people in it.
The more democratic
The more economically vibrant
The more environmentally sound
The more honest
The more trustful
The more compassionate
The more healthy
16. People who live in ‘middle class’ societies . . .
Have more Visit museums
Enjoy more
economic security more often
leisure time
Work in less Have cooler
Have shorter
stressful jobs high-tech gadgets
commutes
Worry less Find parking
Pay less for
about crime spaces quicker
housing
Get more pleasure Vote more
Need to diet
watching sports regularly
less frequently
See fewer Live longer,
Contribute more
beggars happier lives
to charities
17. Middle class societies work these wonders . . .
. . . because a middle class society, with narrower economic divides
between people, tends to be more socially cohesive.
Low Incomes Median Income High Incomes
The more people who share similar economic circumstances,
the smaller the gap from rich to poor, the better the social outcomes.
18. An income distribution comparison
Japan and the United States
Incomes in the Year 2000 United States
Japan
Source: Gapminder.com
19. What difference can distribution make?
‘Research during this last
decade has shown that the
health of a group of people
is not affected
substantially by individual
behaviors such as
smoking, diet and
exercise, by genetics or by
the use of health care. In
countries where basic
goods are readily
available, people's life
span depends on the
hierarchical structure of
their society; that is, the
size of the gap between
rich and poor.’
Dr. Stephen Bezruchka,
University of Washington
School of Public Health
Source: Population Health Forum
20. The Working Class Imperative: Narrowing that Gap
Leveling up Leveling down
the bottom the top
21. The gap can be narrowed
In the middle decades of the 20th
century, the American working class
fought and won battles . . .
To gain a fairer share of the wealth
that workers created
To tax income and
wealth progressively
To forge a social safety net
To guarantee all workers
a minimum wage
23. In the mid 20th century, real leveling success
Average income of top 0.01 percent of U.S. families as a multiple
of average income of bottom 90 percent of U.S. families
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
24. 800
1000
0
600
200
400
1917
1919
1921
1923
1925
1927
1929
1931
1933
1935
1937
1939
1941
1943
1945
1947
1949
1951
1953
1955
1957
1959
1961
1963
1965
1967
1969
1971
1973
1975
1977
1979
1981
1983
of average income of bottom 90 percent of U.S. families
1985
1987
Average income of top 0.01 percent of U.S. families as a multiple
1989
The Last 30 Years: A Grand Reversal
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
25. Not a middle class society, but a top-heavy society
$213,913,695
Average annual incomes,
$174,981,403
400 highest-earning
Americans,
before and after taxes
(in dollars inflation
adjusted to 2005)
$11,958,028 $5,835,518
1955 2005
Total added potential political power for top 400 in 2005: over $67 billion
26. The leveling imperative forgotten
‘We really don't care what the people in the
executive branch make just as long as our
members and their families can share in the
wealth and have decent pay and job security.’
D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of Culinary
Union Local 226, largest union in Nevada,
representing 60,000 Las Vegas workers, and
an executive vice-president, UNITE HERE
