Middle class

The middle class refers to people neither at the top nor bottom of a social hierarchy. In today's usage, the term is often applied to people who have a degree of economic independence, but not a great deal of social influence or power in their society. For example, in the United States, a small business owner who owns her own home and cleans it herself would generally be described as "middle class." This would be in contrast to a lower class person who relies upon the good graces of an employer and landlord, as well as to an upper class person who can live off investments and pay someone else to clean their house for them. Such finance-based differentiation originates in the US version of the class system. Other organisations of upper, middle, and lower classes are based on behavioural and/or historic grounds, or economic relations.

Related Topics:
Hierarchy - Influence - Power - United States - Lower class - Upper class - Investments - Class system

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