All in the Middle? (DOAC 9)

My freshman year history teacher, Mr. Zilka, once said that 98% of Americans considered themselves to be middle class.  I was thinking about this the other day as I was reading an article that talked about the inevitable tax increases on "the middle class" to come.

The fact that we have a huge majority of our nation that considers themselves middle class is really quite interesting and peculiar (in the Peculiar Institution sense).  We are the only country in the world with such an undefined middle class.  CEOs of medium sized corporations consider themselves middle class. At the same time blue collar workers consider themselves middle.

My first thought was that because of this we must have a great sense of intrinsic equality in the US (and I kept that belief until further thought last Saturday).  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if this is true.  I'm not sure if my life in the middle class is the same as someone whose family is not as fortunate as mine.  Technically a kid whose parent works at a steel mine might say that he is middle class.  I am undoubtedly middle class.  So there are variations within the middle class...

I think the problem with my original response to the statistic can be found right there in my last paragraph.  I "know" that I am in the middle class, so does the other kid.  In the subcultures of America we have multiple definitions of "middle class."

I think the reason that we all consider ourselves middle class in the US is not because we believe we are equal.  I think it reflects America's greed and consumer attitude.  Our wealth is never quite good enough, we could always be richer.  We could always have more.