According to Romney, who claims "Middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less." Derek Thompson graphs this:
Thompson later admits that Obama's definition of middle class is effectively the same. Dylan Matthews searches for a better definition. Catherine Rampell notes that a historically large percentage of young people identify as lower or lower-middle class. She wonders if this will persist:
Since people seem to define middle class by culture and values as much by income, it will be interesting to see if this growing self-identification with lower class sticks in the years ahead as this younger cohort ages, and if it does, what kind of pressure (if any) that might put on politicians to redefine their stated socioeconomic class categories. As I mentioned in an earlier post, even as the median American family has gotten poorer, Americans overall have lowered their expectations for what the rich should pay in taxes.
The Dish 