Comments on: Monetary Middle Class

By: John Sams

John Sams — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:14:45 +0000

Further investigation of the research on which the Kommersant item is based revealed the following:
Средний класс в России – прослойка населения с доходами от $500 до $3 тыс. на члена семьи в месяц – уже сложился и увеличивается год от года. http://forinsurer.com/news/08/02/27/14748
My Russian being what it is I’m not totally clear how this relates to the annual family income figures in the table. The point being made in this article is that that “middle class” incomes are rising faster than those of the”super-rich” (сверхбогатых людей). The example given is that the group of Russians with annual family incomes of more than $25000 has increased by 65% in 2007. The higher the income above $12500 the slower the growth in annual family income. This suggests to me that the super-rich are those with incomes of more than $125000 and therefore that this is the cut off for the middle class.
None of this invalidates Sean’s point about the nature of class, although I don’t find EP Thompson’s discussion of the topic particularly helpful either. He is over-anxious to disassociate himself from the idea of class as a structure but it must have a structure in any society at any given point in history.

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:05:21 +0000

all the figures say “more than”, which suggests that all with more than 5 million are included in the middle class. here in Britain it is not uncommon for all the well-off to be called middle class

Perhaps I incorrectly assumed that Kommersant wouldn’t have the gall to suggest that anything above 5 million was still the middle class.

I see that Britain is like the States in terms of who is in the middle class. Of course I find it funny that there is a middle class with a lower class, but no upper class. The idea that everyone is in the middle class is a great ideological swindle. But then again, this is why income is not a good marker. The fact that people believe that they are in the middle class, and identify themselves as such is quite powerful.

By: John Sams

John Sams — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:00:37 +0000

Sean
The table you give does not “Cut off the middle class at an income of five million”. all the figures say “more than”, which suggests that all with more than 5 million are included in the middle class. here in Britain it is not uncommon for all the well-off to be called middle class. Perhaps in Russia they still think in terms of the working class and the bourgeoisie.

By: ivanov

ivanov — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:24:44 +0000

“Man, if I earned that much money I would live like a king. ”

kannski… but as very poor king )

By: Chrisius Maximus

Chrisius Maximus — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:23:09 +0000

Middle class goes from $16000 to $5 million a year? Wow, that’s some spread.

People who earn $5 million a year in the States sure aren’t considered middle class!

By: Chrisius Maximus

Chrisius Maximus — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:50:29 +0000

“I would say that “middle” is 50.000 – 125.000 or just 6.26%”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your standards are insanely high. Man, if I earned that much money I would live like a king.

By: ivanov

ivanov — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:19:58 +0000

I would say that “middle” is 50.000 – 125.000 or just 6.26%

“upper classes” >250.000 make just 1.75%

The rest 91.99% struggling just to live.

So there is a long, long way to go…