I have been wanting to speak to this subject for a long time. Please read through the end.
The average American brought home $55,773.00 in 2016. In terms of dollars, that is more money than I earned for two thirds of my life, with an undergraduate EE degree and years of experience as an electronics tech before then. My annual salary as an engineer was $15,000 in 1978. I got regular raises, the company moved me three times during my career, and I never lived or worked anywhere near my hometown. When I retired as a mid-level engineering manager in 2015, I was barely making a six figure salary.
In terms of the current definitions of Middle Class, these are how Americans are distributed between 1967 and 2014, a period of 47 years:
Note that the Lower class shrank from 38.7% in 1967 to 33.7% in 2014, a decline of 5%. Note also that the Middle Class shrank from 53.2% in 1967 to 41.6% in 2014, a decline of 11.6%.
But while the Middle Class was "shrinking", the Upper Class
increased from 8.1% in 1967 to 24.7% in 2014 -
it more than tripled in size.YES, these are inflation-adjusted constant dollars.
During the 2015 primary period, Bernie Sanders attempted to incite class warfare in the USA with his Socialist BS. That is what it was, Socialist BS, with no basis in truth. By every parameter that can be measured, the lives of Americans are improving, in spite of the downslope of retiring Boomers.
In terms of relative per capita incomes, US citizens are wealthy compared to other countries (here are the 25 wealthiest in comparison):
In view of these numbers, with all the whining about the "system", the complaints about "the 1%", and the whining of all you LAZY BUMS who think that if you could only VOTE FOR THE RIGHT PERSON, you would be relieved of the inconvenience of working, I unhesitatingly declare you all to be worthless complainers, citizens of the wealthiest large country with (still) the largest Middle Class, which may or may not have peaked in prosperity (the stats don't support that conclusion at all).
You are among the most fortunate of people, living in a golden age of prosperity, and you are complaining. That makes you an incredibly greedy and thoughtless bunch, complaining to no end without any basis for your complaints.
To call you PIGS is to insult pigs, you worthless human scum.