UK - US middle class has imploded, it is official

[anotherlife]

most Brits and Americans hear the word "middle class" at least 10 times daily on TV and elsewhere. But do these countries really have any middle class remaining? No.

You are not middle class if you lose your house and car the next day you get laid off your job. You are not middle class either if you need to work 7 days a week and over 7 hours a day, possibly multiple jobs, just to keep a roof, no matter how small or big that roof is. And you are definitely not middle class if your personal debt to earning ratio is over 10 %, which you are forced to blow the minute you dare take a student loan or mortgage.

It is obvious worldwide, especially in the European Union and Russia, that the best proof of this is brexit. The poorer you get, the less prosperity you allow.

So who believes in America and in the UK that there is a middle class? Do you believe that you belong to a middle class? Discuss.

 

[leftwinger]

Middle Class? Not anymore. Since late 2008..........it has become survival instead of planning for "old age 62-67" retirement. Early SS? Looks likely. I think recently I have learned that IRA withdrawal is not used "against" your SS (no reduction in SS would take place). I hope so.

Meaning if you work and earn too much, your early SS would be cut. But not if you add on IRA money.

 

[leftwinger]

I know a Tawainese-American guy out in Silicon Valley around age 61, laid off for while now (maybe since 08?). He was never poor. As with many Asian his 90 yr. old mom is in the house and his sister too I think? He still goes on cruise ships and vacations to Japan and China. Anyways he is not poor but no longer is he "rich" as he used to be. I suppose he has some inheritance coming. They have a house probably worth $750K or so. He is spending his IRA.

The other day he said he told me he has had to buy Obama Care. He bought the upper Platinum as he needs some sort of medication.

I think he said............$1600/mo. Un-beleivable. For one person. By the time he can get medicare he will be out $210K or more, in monthly premiums? 2010-2020 at $20K/year. I dread buying anything like that.

 

[anotherlife]

Yes. The way obamacare was distorted, it added to the OP in imploding the middle class, in addition to how much free credit for subprime lending and student lending did, all engineered carefully and evilly.