Basement Whatever

The American middle class as we know it didn’t emerge from the free market. It was constructed — deliberately, through policy, in response to specific political and economic conditions.

And:

Today, you can earn what used to be a solidly middle-class income and find that it purchases a fundamentally different life than it did a generation ago. Same paycheck, different purchasing power — in part because every component of the safety net “bundle” was repriced individually, and the prices went up.

And:

And yet roughly 70% of Americans still identify as middle class, even though only about halfobjectively qualify

Read on yourbrainonmoney.substack.com/p/i-make-good-money-why-do-i-still