What happened to the working class?

See http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-vi...04.85218.6qKbdL&rd=1&src=newsletter711854&t=6


The charts demonstrate that "middle class" is a statistical fiction but it is hard to see because, like every such essay, at least one chart is missing - the chart which puts a dollar limits to the quintiles of chart of figure 6.

What do you call a person who makes less than 50% of median income? "POOR!"

In the Seattle, the median income is about $40k. Half of that of $20k. What is the minimum wage in WA? $9/hour and the equivalent standard work year is around $20k. The person who makes less than half the median wage is making minimum wage. Anyone who works a full time legal job CAN'T make less than minimum wage unless they are waiting tables.

The numbers for scab states are roughly $15/hour and $30k median pay, same as above. IN OTHER WORDS, in the bad old days there was a very large working class, a much smaller middle class, and a teeny tiny rich class. These days, there is a very large working class renamed "middle class," an invisible middle class, and a teeny tiny rich class.

Where did the middle class go? "The middle class" has been moved up to the fourth quintle, the $200k to $250K (or so?) group that politics has pushed down into the middle class.

If people making minimum wage are the lower limit of "middle class," then what is the working class making?

Median statistics only apply to bell shaped curves. Income distribution is NOT a bell curve!