I was looking through the Record-Bee online and I noticed that someone wrote in saying there was no shrinking middle class. (“Slogans are flawed,” Pat Nunes, Readers” Views, Sept. 16.) They apparently were responding to an earlier article, which I did not read.
After one Google search, the second hit gave this account: It basically quotes data from 2001 to 2003 stating that in fact the middle class is shrinking.
The report noted that while some middle class families did move up, the majority moved downward. The results were from an Aug. 23, 2004, 2004 report from the Census Bureau that looked at incomes in the $25,000 to $75,000 range.
Since Bush took office the middle class has declined by 1.2 percent and now constitutes less than 45 percent of all households. At the same time, households with less than $25,000 have grown by over 1.5 percent, meaning the group at the poverty level also is growing. That group now makes up 29 percent of all households. Also, median income has declined by over $1,500 since Bush took office.
And finally, nearly 4.3 million more people are living below the poverty line since Bush took office. Those do not seem to be very encouraging numbers.
David Blair
Kelseyville
