{"id":19312,"date":"2012-08-24T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/most-in-the-middle-class-says-its-gotten-harder-to-maintain-their-lifestyle\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:44:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:44:58","slug":"most-in-the-middle-class-says-its-gotten-harder-to-maintain-their-lifestyle","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2012\/08\/24\/most-in-the-middle-class-says-its-gotten-harder-to-maintain-their-lifestyle\/","title":{"rendered":"Most in the Middle Class Says It\u2019s Gotten Harder to Maintain Their Lifestyle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the past decade, the Great Recession, a housing market collapse, an unemployment surge and an anemic recovery have squeezed the middle class . An overwhelming majority of middle-class Americans (85%) say it is more difficult today than 10 years ago for those in the middle class to maintain their standard of living.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it\u2019s not just the middle class that feels this way. Some 82% of the self-described upper class and 87% of those who consider themselves in the lower class agree that it\u2019s harder today for middle-class Americans.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Within the middle class, the downbeat assessment is shared by virtually identical proportions of men and women, Republicans and Democrats, the college-educated and those with a high school degree or less. However, there are some notable differences by race and age.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Middle-class whites are more likely than middle-class blacks to say it is harder today to maintain a middle-class lifestyle (87% vs. 79%). Also, those in the middle class who are ages 50 to 64\u2014adults in their prime earning years\u2014are more likely than those younger than 30 (91% vs. 81%) or older than 65 (83%) to say that maintaining a middle-class lifestyle is harder now than a decade ago. <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/08\/22\/the-lost-decade-of-the-middle-class\/3\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most middle class Americans say it is more difficult today than 10 years ago for those in the middle class to maintain their standard of living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[],"bylines":[791],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-19312","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-pew-research-center-staff","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states"],"label":"Short 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