Center for Business and Economic Research - Ball State University


CBER Data Center
Projects and PublicationsEconomic IndicatorsWeekly CommentaryCommunity Asset InventoryManufacturing Scorecard

About

Commentaries are published weekly and distributed through the Indianapolis Business Journal and many other print and online publications. Disclaimer

RSS Feed

Disclaimer

The views expressed in these commentaries do not reflect those of Ball State University or the Center for Business and Economic Research.

Recent

Bank Failures Warn of Deeper Economic ProblemsDuring the Great Recession, a whopping 0.014 percent of banks were closed by the FDIC.

Remote Work Through the Eyes of Three 20-SomethingsRemote work is here to stay.

Remote Work and Labor MarketsThere are more remote workers today than there are immigrants in the U.S.

The Amish in IndianaIt is hard not to draw similarities between the Amish and newer immigrant groups.

View archives

Top Tags

jobs and employment 228
economics 176
education 146
economic development 144
state and local government 124
taxes 122
finance 108
recession 100
budget and spending 100
indiana 99
Browse all tags
Reporter / Admin Login

February 9, 2014

The Changing State of the Middle Class

My previous three columns on income inequality have touched on its causes, the role that government and markets play in evening out consumption, and finally the extreme limits public policy plays in equalizing incomes. This week, I will focus more on the middle class.

For most of recorded history there was no real middle class. Cities, technological growth and political freedom brought to the world a merchant class, but it was not until the industrial revolution was in full form that a large number of households entered what we think of as the middle class today.

In America, and especially the Midwest, this middle class was built upon an unsustainable combination of low-productivity, high-wage jobs in large factories. That version of the middle class was never sustainable and has been unravelling for a half century.

The second half of the 20th century saw a new, different middle class emerge, with workers across many industries applying high value-added human capital to the production of goods and increasingly services. This is a sustainable middle class, built on work, in which most American households now belong.

Unsurprisingly, these new middle class jobs required greater human capital investment. This brought about two wholly predictable outcomes as a higher share of folks go to college. First, college becomes more expensive as less well-prepared students come to campus; and second, the return on the investment declines as more folks have a degree. It remains by far the best investment option available.

More time in school and more rapid technological change translates into greater income volatility among households. One statistical artifact of greater volatility is that a snapshot of income makes us look a lot more unequal than we are if we view earnings over a lifetime. My household provides a common example.

I entered college a few days after turning 18, meeting the poverty definition for four years. Afterwards, nearly a decade in the army had me earning middle class wages. Leaving active duty, marrying and entering graduate school saw my household again beneath the poverty threshold.

In the fifteen years I have been a professor my family income has ranged from just below the national median to the top 5 percent of earners. At any given year over the past 30, my household income was in each of the five income quintiles, including nine years in poverty. But on average we remain firmly in the middle class. The income inequality lobby does a great job ignoring the lifetime earnings issue. Most likely this is because dispassionate analysis does not suit their purpose.

It would be surprising if this century didn’t see as much change in economic and class structures as did the last. If history is any guide, things will be better, not worse. Still, two things remain certain. Education remains a route to economic comfort, not necessarily riches; and, for healthy folks, dodging poverty is easy. Avoid drugs, finish school and wait until you are grown up to have children.

Link to this commentary: https://commentaries.cberdata.org/716/the-changing-state-of-the-middle-class

Tags: personal income and wealth, income and wages, economic theory


About the Author

Michael Hicks cberdirector@bsu.edu

Michael J. Hicks, PhD, is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and the George and Frances Ball distinguished professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. Hicks earned doctoral and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Virginia Military Institute. He has authored two books and more than 60 scholarly works focusing on state and local public policy, including tax and expenditure policy and the impact of Wal-Mart on local economies.

© Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University

About Ball State CBER Data Center

Ball State CBER Data Center is one-stop shop for economic data including demographics, education, health, and social capital. Our easy-to-use, visual web tools offer data collection and analysis for grant writers, economic developers, policy makers, and the general public.

Ball State CBER Data Center (cberdata.org) is a product of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University. CBER's mission is to conduct relevant and timely public policy research on a wide range of economic issues affecting the state and nation. Learn more.

Terms of Service

Center for Business and Economic Research

Ball State University • Whitinger Business Building, room 149
2000 W. University Ave.
Muncie, IN 47306-0360
Phone:
765-285-5926
Email:
cber@bsu.edu
Website:
www.bsu.edu/cber
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/BallStateCBER
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/BallStateCBER
Close