The middle class, more than 70 percent of America’s driving force, is struggling to survive and shrinking before our eyes, according to the Pew Research Center on Wednesday. “America’s middle class has endured its worst decade in modern history,” the reports said. “It has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some — but by no means all — of its characteristic faith in the future.”
Pew surveyed 2,500 people and 85% of those people who identify themselves with the middle class say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago to maintain their standard of living. The report also found that the middle class is a much smaller part of the population than it was, while the poor and rich extremes of society are expanding. Richard Fry, an economist and the co-author of the report, said the biggest issue facing the middle class is that their wealth is deteriorating. The housing crisis in 2008 eroded much of the middle class’ net worth, creating a “lost decade” in terms of economic well-being for this group. “For middle-income households, a lot of wealth was in their home, so the housing bust really impacted their nest eggs,” Fry said. “Middle-income families are the only ones whose nest eggs have plummeted.”
