middle class
Am I middle class? I don't feel rich.
The recent conversation around University of Michigan student Jesse Klein’s column on being middle class has been fascinating. Klein’s family makes $250k a year and lives in a $2 million house. But it’s not an enormo-house, because that’s $2 million in Silicon Valley.
What does "middle class" mean?
Dionne Searcey and Robert Gebeloff do a nice job crunching some numbers on what sorts of people are part of the middle class, and how they’re doing (the short version: not great). This caveat of theirs, however, is an important one.
Experiments in time
Every story is a story about time. Boyhood's power is not the perimeters of its story as much as the immersion into it.
Updike, by Adam Begley
Updike's religious explorations are what make his writing so interesting, and Adam Begley explores them well. But he devotes too much space to trying to link fictional settings and characters with Updike's real life.
reviewed by Jon Sweeney
Sad rich-but-not-superrich people in the WSJ
This graphic from the Wall Street Journal is amazing.
The article does point out that tax increases coming out of the fiscal-cliff deal will affect all workers—because of the end of the payroll tax holiday—not just those whose taxes on wage income and investments are going up. But the graphic sticks with the six-figure folks, all drawn to look rather put upon.
Defining the middle: The rhetoric and reality of class
What does "middle class" mean if it somehow applies to most of the country? And if we are all middle class now, what are the implications?
More on the middle class and framing
I posted recently about how the rhetorical category “the middle class” seems to keep growing (even as the actual middle class is shrinking). Then I read Jon Ronson’s article in this month’s GQ. Ronson profiles six people—actually, five individuals and one family—who represent different spots on the U.S. income scale, giving a glimpse of “how to live on $____ a week.”
It’s a solid premise, and Ronson approaches his subjects with empathy and a dose of righteous indignation. But I was startled by his methodology.
We are all middle class now
Obama's tax proposal is good short-term policy and smart politics. But it irks me every time I hear him define the middle class so expansively.
No common good?
The common good is taking a beating. Economic inequality has accelerated dramatically since the early 1980s, and many think nothing can be done about it. But that verdict is a nonstarter for Christian morality.
by Gary Dorrien