Middle Class

Middle class

In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class. The common measures of what constitutes middle class vary significantly between cultures.

History and evolution of the term

The modern usage of the term "middle class", however, dates to the 1700's UK Registrar-General's report, in which the statistician T.H.C. Stevenson identified the middle class as that falling between the upper class and the working class.

A persistent source of confusion surrounding the term “middle class” derives predominantly from there being no set criteria for such a definition. From an economic perspective, for example, members of the middle class do not necessarily fall in the middle of a society’s income distribution. Instead, middle class salaries tend to be determined by middle class occupations, which in turn are attained by means of middle class values...The middle class is, essentially, a macro-social group embracing individuals, or rather categories of individuals, marked by a unique general attitude towards life. Those are people who owe everything to their own efforts, resources, qualification, education , etc. Self-made as they are, middle-class people are furthermore self-employed and relatively free and autonomous in their work. Their knowledge and qualification , property and managerial skills are intentionally acquired and so is their social status... in-between the upper crust and the wage earners, in-between the envy of the world and the pitied ones.

Professional-manageral

This group of middle-class professionals are distinguished from other social classes by their training and education (typically business qualifications and university degrees)