NO ONE HAS IT HARDER THAN THEIR FATHER DID:

What's notable is that while the share of households with a middle class income has indeed been shrinking over time, from 53.2 percent in 1967 to 42.2 percent in 2016, the households leaving the middle class have not been swelling the lower income category. In fact, the share of households with incomes less than $35,000 has also been shrinking, from 38.2 percent in 1967 to 30.2 percent in 2016. The real trend is that households have been leaving both the lower and middle income categories to join the upper income bracket, which has more than tripled as a share of households from 8.5 percent in 1967 to 27.7 percent in 2016.

Evidence is also mounting that more and more Americans understand that this is a real phenomenon and not a statistical mirage. In a recent Gallup poll, analyzed in a Labor Day weekend column by Robert Samuelson, 62 percent of Americans now identify themselves as middle class. After plunging during the Great Recession of 2008-09, that share has now topped its pre-recession peak of 60 percent.

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