What's middle class where you live?

In my state Oklahoma income was $61,471 per 4 person family. In 2017, that is way off because it includes the very poor and very rich. rich. I'd like to see what it really is if the upper and lower 10% were both deducted and the average of 80% were the only ones considered.

To me middle class is a blue collar or truck driver or retail clerk. It seems to me that we don't have an average idea what average means or is. A roofer, a nurse, a soldier a bank teller? or something more extreme?

Ive always considered middle class as the following occupations for example:

small business owner
teachers
nurses
accountants
middle managers

Small business owners like convenience store and fast food restarant franchises or Plumbers and landscapers?

Not sure, are you meaning your town, region, city, or country?

My area (town, suburb) has been traditionally working class. I.e non professional, jobs that dont need higher education skills or university degrees, but now many more people are getting higher education, but not everyone are obtaining roles in their profession.

If going strictly by income, one would have to calculate the median rather than the average, since there is a huge gap between rich and poor now. In many bigger organisations the CEOS are earning ten times as much as their workers/employees and there is not much middle management.

Averages, stastically speaking, are often skewed and are not really the middle. You want to find the median.

As for type of job, those that work in a trade are often not throught of as middle class. Middle class might be someones whos been university educated and makes a living as a architect, doctor, lawyer, dentist, engineer. They may be wealthy enough to own their own home or at least make a deposit on one. They wouldnt be renting and might actually have more than one home. If married, the wife may not have to work a job and earn as the husband could have enough income to be the breadwinner, typically. But thats starting to become rare now as house prices increase, cost of living increases.

Theres working class, typically employees or tradies earning wages eg by the hour. Employment can bepartime, seasonal or causual and there is sometimes little job security, and no room for advancement, wages dont often rise with inflation.

Then middle class professions that earn salaries. This income is per year and isnt typically paid by the hour.
I think thats the main difference. You get more say over what you can earn and negotiate how much you get paid. Often you will have graduate qualifications that are internationally recognised.

The next class is the aristocrats. They typically have inherited money and actually dont NEED to work. Their income could be just the interest they earn from a trust fund or land portfolio.

Another class is the entrepenuer i.e donald trump, who invests money and does deals. They may win big, but they also take risks and lose big. Anyone whos an investment banker is basically gambling with other peoples money, but its seen as legit. They are in a class of their own.

Not sure why you concerned over this but as christians we look to God to provide all our needs, money shouldnt be our worry. He will give us enough for our families and he will forgive our debts. No matter what type of work is, we should do it for the Lord.

I think the word “Middle Class” is used in economics and in the financial world to determine a set of people and has to be defined by money in the end. Most people might think they are middle class are not, as the costs of staying in the middle class are going up.

Growing up, the middle class are taught to work hard to get a nice house and a reliable vehicle. Now they realise how easily borrowing too much can undermine this plan

Things they were taught could be assets aren’t really assets, they’re liabilities so there is a “debt elephant” in the middle class sitting room no one is talking about.

Unsecured debt was once something that was undesirable but occasionally necessary to something that is both inevitable and now normal.

Credit cards and loans, once something for emergencies, are now a vital way to get through the month until payday for millions of people. I am not sure about elsewhere, but in the UK, 22% of people rely on credit cards to live.

There is a famous term used in Britain called “Keeping up with the Joneses”. It basically means you look at your neighbours car, house etc and “keep up” somehow to give the appearance of “doing well”. Is this “middle class”? Maybe, but its certainly breaking the tenth and last commandment. The "middle class" in Britain have now become the debtors class more like. Remember that the middle class are always the first ones to be wiped out financially in a depression as some are only a payday away from bankruptcy as they live beyond their means. The poor are used to being poor and the rich have enough in a financial crash, but the “middles” are always striving for more and are usually in the most debt.

These people are so in the “red” that they have to take out more credit to avoid problems and are people who you think really shouldn’t need it: 30 percent of people using credit cards to survive earn between £50,000 and £70,000, compared with 25 percent of people who earn £15,000 (you may question the use of the word ‘survive’ – I think it means ‘to pay the bills’ rather than actually stay alive). The higher income bracket made up the biggest proportion of desperate borrowers and speculated that debt could now be a ‘keeping up with the Joneses" led phenomenon.

This explanation is purely a financial way to class people in the “middle” or not.

If it is a social explanation or cultural - that is different. Monty Python explains this as it was this way in Britain when the “keeping up with the Joneses” term was coined. The book the “Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” by Robert Tressell defines this even better.

As for myself, I think you are either a saver or a spender. I was brought up to believe debt is a dirty word and if you don't have the money, don't buy it. “Need” and “want” are two different things and there is only so much you need in life and the rest is just for showing off.

Britain is still obsessed with “class” but on a social/cultural way more so. It was never more prevalent than in the 60s and 70s but old habits die hard. The upper class these days are just as much in debt as everyone else and can't afford to run their inherited wealth of stately homes, so have to rent them out to the public and the working class sometimes have more disposable income than the middle class who have mortgages, car loan debt and credit cards. Its all about living within your means no matter how much you earn.

Socially and culturally, Britain still try to "appear" to be in the "middle class" but whether there living costs are sustainable to their lifestyle is another matter to what it may "appear".

Calibob your midle class just sounds like working class