Middle Class Downbeat

More and more middle class Americans say they are not better off than they were five years ago. This reflects economic pressures and growing personal debt. Their short term assessment of personal progress, according to a study, is the worst it has been in nearly half a century. Now that is saying quite a bit.This paints a mixed picture for the 53 percent of adults in the country who define themselves as "middle class" with household incomes ranging from below $40,000 to more than $100,000. It was found that a majority of all Americans said they have not progressed in the last five years. One in four, or 25 percent, said their economic situation had not improved, while 31 percent said they had fallen backward. Those numbers together are the highest since the survey question was first asked in l964. Now that is scary, isn't it?