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Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

Middle class isn't just the middle of the bell curve.

Middle class is being able to live comfortably, get 2 weeks of holiday abroad, afford some but not many luxuries, have a house and enjoy children and hobbies without going bankrupt. Maybe every couple decades you get yourself a nice Audi car.

It is very possible that the middle class is shrinking. But you also have to admit that it's a bit harder to notice it of you're a software engineer in the Silicon Valley on $250k a year and full private life and health insurance.

Even as a software engineer with a decent stint in the top 5% bracket of UK salaries (£70,000) I wonder how the hell am I going to afford a house with more than one bedroom for myself, and I'm already luckier than 95% of the country.

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As always, the linguistic and cultural divide between US and UK is significant in what "middle class" means.

At no point in American history was "2 weeks of holiday abroad" a norm for middle class Americans. In 1990, only 4% of Americans even had a passport. By the year 2000 that had grown to 17%. Today it's 42%.

That means Americans today are 10x more likely to have a passport for international travel than they were 30 years ago. In other words, it would have been incredibly rare for a middle class family in the 1980s to go to Europe for vacation. Meanwhile, it's not that rare for a lower-income American to go to Mexico or the Caribbean today.

>Even as a software engineer with a decent stint in the top 5% bracket of UK salaries (£70,000)

I don't know why you guys aren't striking. Interns where I work start at $72k (£60k), with full benefits (the kind across-the-pond'ers think that Americans don't get, which exceed in beneficial-ness their own) and earn WELL over $100k (£84k) the second they graduate and sign on.

Which is more than enough to live comfortably, own a single-family home, and have an annual international vacation

You should probably ask those on 7k a year why aren't they striking before asking the guy on 70k a year.

IMO: you need to have great faith in your democratic institutions if you think striking will do anything. As a Millenial, all I have known is austerity. All I have known is strikes earn you fuck all. Hell, you might even be fired for taking a day off to shout in a public square.

the 70k worker has more means to strike than the 7k. they should both unionize.

Most jobs in the UK pay significantly less than the US - it’s not just software developers.

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