Bump

Me.
My wages should be adequate to meet my basic comforts (home ownership, affordable groceries, freedom from debt without living on the edge) - this life is gone.

Middle class? $45-100,000/yr income

Modest home or Mega home

Modest car (usually 2) or expensive cars

lots of debt, some debt, no debt

living within their means or living beyond their means

Living from paycheck to paycheck or living within their paycheck

Yup - somewhere between struggling subsistence and offshore tax havens.

I like that definition.  I think many of the income based ones give an idea, but aren't inclusive of many who most would consider to be middle class.

I used to think that middle class meant my people  - aa home, food on the ttable, suitable clothes, school.  Middleclass men worked - often with their hands.  They kept the trains tunning, grew cops, cut wood, worked at 'the plant' or factories. 

Upper class (or rich, to me) were the station agent, the school principal, the doctor, the lawyer, and the propriator of the local grocery store, and my uncle who owned and operated the saw mill - people who usually wore suits, had professions, drove nice cars, got elected to the school board, and brought around the politicians to meet the people at election time.   People like K C Irving were super-rich and out of my league altogether.

Now I realize that my people are (and I proudly always will be) a member of the working class - perhaps even the working poor.  Those I admired as being 'rich' were actually the middle class. 

Seeler, I think I saw somewhere that 99% of people see themselves as middle class, so your earlier perspective isn't surprising.

I agree with chemgal.

Canadian middle class: the vast majority of Canadians.

We could, perhaps, differentiate between upper, middle, and lower middle class. The percentage that is poor by global standards is small, and the percentage that is excessively wealthy even smaller.

I thought this was worthwhile of reviving this old thread:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/middle-class-votes-sought-for-1-big-reas...

So I guess it's 93%, not 99% who define themselves as middle class.

Today's Herald had an article on the situation for the Middle Class as defined by the Federal Government:  Their income has stagnated and their debt is increasing as they try to buy the stuff that middle-class people are expected to have.

hmm...middle class...

those who aren't part of the upper 'aristocratic' class and lowest class?  ie the majority of Canadians?

(aristocratic class first pay themselves, members of the lowest class pays their bills etc first...)

i wonder what Dennis would say?

Middle class has been shrrinking for years.  CBC radio and tv has been discussing and presenting this topic for at least five years.

There exists a widening gap of have and. have nots, which also means an absence of the middle class   Once again: think, vote and shop wisely.

redhead,

where is the Canadian middle class that aren't middle class anymore going?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/housing-affordability-eroding-rbc-says-1...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/financial-crisis-eroded-trust-in-governm...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/housing-affordability-eroding-rbc-says-1...

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/news/income-gap-canada/

From my observations I think the 'middle class' are adding themselves to the ranks of the struggling poor.  Some of them by the choices they make, others by losing that well paid job.  Some won't realise that they are poor until they have to retire and are forced to accept that they still have a huge mortgage to pay despite rising medical expenses. That they need a more reliable car to go to appointments far away.  That those holidays to tropical resorts prevented them from saving for a rainy day.  That rainy day arrives for many people.

I also believe the Middle Class includes most Canadians.  The working folks are in a high mode of gathering in to feed families, get medical treatment, education, etc.

I just heard the UnitedFuture on line and wonder if that is some of the reasoning people are doing other things.  Fun, when they can, anywhere but inside another 'instititon-type', work type place?  I just hear the call "to go out" over and over.

Tonight they spoke of 'going out' to be, in my words, Gospel, or, good news, out there in the sreets where we live, work, play, and are in community.  It was music to my ears.

We are like the early church, but not at the beginning with all the messy stuff then, but the busy, messy stuff  today, here at home and in the world..  The world has shrunk, but our call has not.  

Buildings have a purpose, certainly, but Communities and Neigbourhoods and the First Nations around us, are the people.  Jesus went out ad on his travels here and there he met and taught, and healed them by listening deeply, touching them.  Going Out is being involved among the people at gatherings like rallies, like the Occupy Movement, in the Parks, in front of Parliament, or Embassies.

I believe the church is alive there as well as in a building gathered to be fed, to worship and for education..... but learn what  the community not there, needs, and do with, not for, the people something toward meeting that need.

The Spirit cannot be not tied down, but actively lives among, and in, us and...all people.

And in Creation as a whole.

It is an exciting time!