Will Barratt, Ph.D.
Coffman Distinguished Professor, Bayh College of Education, Indiana
State University
The phrase middle-class values gets frequently used and infrequently
specified. What values are unique to
members of this group? What values do
members of the middle class have that other classes don’t?
The US Middle Class
In the 2008 Pew study Insidethe middle class: Bad times hit the good life people were asked place themselves in one of five socioeconomic categories. This is a good research technique and a good way to avoid some of the traps of defining social class. Participant’s answers were revealing: 91% of participants think of themselves as some variety of middle class.
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Pew
Responses
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Pew
Combinations
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Pew
Categories
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Upper
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2%
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21%
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Upper
Class
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Upper-middle
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19%
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Middle class
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53%
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53%
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Middle
Class
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Lower-middle
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19%
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25%
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Lower
Class
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Lower
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6%
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Don’t know / Refused
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1%
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Combined in a different way, 91% of respondents
self-identify as some variety (upper, middle, lower) of middle class. The whole study describes the middle class
when you combine the three middle class groups in this way, which is how I
choose to read the results.
What does this have to do with middle class values? If you agree that people can self-assign
their social class then you then have a personal identity model of social
class. If the researchers had assigned
people to classes based on occupation, education, and income, like the NY Times in Class Matters,
then you would have a different model of social class that reflected certain
assumptions about hierarchies of occupation, education, and income.
People’s identifications of their class reflect those
things, behaviors, or values that they believe are associated with social
class. The Pew study asked people about
their things, behaviors, and values, and then linked those back to how people self-identified. Using their questionably combined social
class categories the study found some distinctions between their three groups. This is a good research technique, except if
you have made questionable decisions about social class categories.
Combining the groups into the 91% middle class then middle
class values are:
- Upward mobility – people with more money report more mobility than those without money and everyone reports that mobility is harder now than before.
- Having homes – people have been purchasing larger and more expensive homes
- Having stuff – people with more money have more consumer goods
- Having free time – everyone wants more
- Having children
- Having a successful career
- Being married
- Doing volunteer or charity work
- Living a religious life
- Social competition - keeping up with or doing better than others is embedded within these findings.
These values should come as no surprise since these values
are a reflection of what people in a majority of the majority social class believe. That collective belief has always resulted in
the personal and systemic oppression of those who hold different beliefs and
values. If what I believe is normal, and
if you believe something different, then you are not normal.
The International
Middle Class
Another Pew study: The global middle class: Views on democracy, religion, values, and life satisfaction in emerging nations tells a slightly different story and a gives deeper message. This report is the basis of The new middle class in emerging markets
from The Economist. The report is divided into sections on
democracy, religion and social issues, environmental issues, and life
satisfaction and is based on the reported attitudes of the rising middle class:
“people in emerging nations whose household income can be considered at least
“middle income” by international standards” (p. 1).
A generalization of the results is that members
of the middle class in emerging nations are heavily invested in the political,
religious, social, and business system that made them middle class. For example in nearly all nations studied
members of the middle class more strongly supported honest elections with at
least two parties as very important than did respondents with lower
incomes. As with the study above, these
results should come as no surprise. If a
system has worked for me personally, in this case made me middle income, then I
will support that system.
Not middle class
values
What is not in the middle class values list above may be an
artifact of the research questions asked or may reflect a reality. For example, education is not a middle class
value in the list above, and may in reality not be a middle class value. As evidence for education not being a middle
class value I refer to the 85% high school degree attainment rate and the 30%
college degree attainment rate according to the US Census Bureau. It is important to note that graduation rates
for high schools are typically 75% and 50% for colleges. If education were valued then these rates
would be much higher. However, we do
know that 75% of college students have college educated parents, and that only
30% of the parenting public has a college degree. In the case of education perhaps there are
important differences in the value of education within the 91% or this reflects
investment in a system that made the parents successful.
A Google search will provide an introduction to the
controversy surrounding how to calculate high school graduation numbers. I support counting the number of 9th
grade students and then the number of diplomas awarded four years later adjusted
for population growth or decline.
Summary
Middle class values are normative in that they are held by
the majority of the people in the majority social class in the US and are thus
considered normal. Reading the bulleted
list above should not be a surprise to anyone since it will appear normal. Adding middle class members’ investment in
the political, religious, social, and business system rounds out the picture of
middle class values.
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