Finding Middle Ground

Are you rich? Are you poor? If you’re like most Americans, you’ll answer no to both questions, even if your income or wealth puts you near the top or the bottom of the national distribution. Why? Because as a society we have a powerful sense that the proper place to be—economically, socially, even morally—is somewhere in the middle. It’s a myth-infused realm, full of hard workers, disposable income, and egalitarian possibility. In 2017, when Gallup asked Americans of various genders, races, and ethnicities to identify their social class, just 2% put themselves in the upper echelon and only 8% put themselves at the bottom. The remaining 90%—plumbers, HR managers, biologists, tax attorneys, software engineers, farmers, nurses, HBR editors—put themselves in between.