Middle Class Squeeze - Common Beliefs of Middle Class Americans

Common Beliefs of Middle Class Americans

According to a Survey on the Middle Class and Public Policy, just 38% of middle-class Americans say they live comfortably, and 77% believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Another 2008 report entitled "Inside the Middle Class: Bad Times Hit the Good Life" states that 78% of the middle class say it is more difficult now than it was five years ago. The middle class also responded that 72% believe they are economically less secure than ten years ago and almost twice the number of Americans claimed they were concerned about their personal economic stability. Showing that, overwhelmingly, the American people believe the middle class is being squeezed and are in a worse economic position than they were even 5 years ago.

However, some economists have other views towards the current issues that the American middle class is facing, particularly dealing with the minimum wage.

• David Madland, Director of the American Worker Project at the Center for American Progress Action Fund believes that if the legal minimum wage was raised, it would encourage spending, investment, consumption, and therefore promote economic growth.
• Helen Neuborne, director of the Quality Employment Unit of the Ford Foundation has a similar view. She states that if the minimum wage were raised, middle-class American families would be able to support their families and would be better able to cope with the economic effects of the recession in the future.
• In a November 2010 study done in the Review of Economics and Statistics, it was found that raising the minimum wage did not have a direct impact on job loss. It found that by raising the minimum wage, the Federal government and state governments would give more money to the American working class which increases consumer spending. This aids the economy by giving money to the middle class and keeps money away from corporations.
• Economist Heidi Shierholz furthered this idea by stating that a legal minimum wage of $8.25 per hour would create fifty-thousand jobs and give around ten million American workers a raise.