In his book "M-Society: crisis and Business opportunities for the disappearance of the Middle Class", the Japanese economic commentator asks three questions: is housing lending a lot of pressure on you? Do you dare not marry, or do not intend to have children? Do you worry about the future cost of your child's education? If you were asked these questions, he thought, you were a fake middle class.
These questions are likely to overturn many Chinese friends who think they are middle-class. In Australia, where housing prices are high and education costs are high, it is not easy to be a dignified middle class.
Australian definition of "middle class"
So, what is the middle class and who belongs to the middle class? This is a frequently asked question, and we need a broad definition first.
The bank has previously published a study on the subject, dividing the average household income into five echelons.
As shown in the chart below, the annual income of the third echelon family is about A $80000. The definition of the middle class here is to ignore the lowest and highest incomes, and the 2nd to 4th echelons represent the middle class. According to this definition, in 2016, if a household income is between A $60000 and A $110000, it means your family has entered the middle class of Australia.
In addition, the Australian Reserve Bank also conducted statistics on the "average income range, or middle class," across different regions. Even in the Greater Sydney region, household incomes vary significantly from place to place. , Lavender Bay's average household income, for example, is about A $40, 000 to A $95,000 higher than Marayong.
In this way, apart from the level of wages, the criteria for judging whether you are "middle class" are actually depending on where you live.
In Australia, residential address is no longer a simple concept of address, but includes more social, cultural and economic implications.
If income levels are key to access to appropriate services and opportunities, the availability of these services and opportunities varies depending on the area of residence.
The area of residence often depends on the ability of the family to buy a house. In turn, residence affects their life patterns, which directly determine the employment opportunities and social circles of a generation or generations. For example, the growth path of a child is closely related to the occupation of his or her school and parents.
Capital cities tend to be at the forefront of household income levels, and the farther away from big cities, the more income declines. This explains why people living in remote areas of Australia think they are middle class.
The American definition of "middle class"
In the United States, the Brookings Institution (Brookings Institution) has also studied this topic. It finds that some people define the middle class on a subjective rather than a single dimension. Some of the most common definitions are based on wealth or income, but often take into account stable jobs, the ability to save money, housing, education, occupation and social status.
In the United States, revenues between $35000 and $162000 are considered middle class, according to the Brookings Institution.
In addition, the income needed by the middle class is related to the size of the middle-class family. For example, it costs $35,000 for a single family to become the middle class, $72,999 for a high-income family, $54,000 for a family of five, and $ one hundred and sixty one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine for a high-level middle class.
The Brookings Institution notes that Americans' self-perception does not match their actual social class. Thirty-six percent of Americans earn less than $30,000 a year, a figure well below the middle class. Another CNBC survey found that 88% of millionaires said they were middle class, while only 4% admitted they were rich.
In other words, some very rich people, and some relatively poor people, regard themselves as middle class.
Sociologists say they may be right. Because middle-class standards don't just depend on your salary or bank deposits, income is certainly an important factor, but it's not the only one.