With all the foreclosures and consolidations it seems the middle class is shrinking..
 

Perhaps a new, or at least stronger, ruling class is being created at this very moment. The rich get richer and the poor get company (from the previously middle class).

just a thought.

Do you have to own a house to be middle class?

this was and is the ultimate goal of the gubmint...the reemergence of the aristocracy

I mainly feel sort for the old people who have worked hard all their lives, and saved and planned for a nice fun comfortable retirement, and now the money is gone through no fault of their own.

I'd like to see a few CEOs jumping out of windows (or were they pushed?).

Absolutely the middle class is going to shrink. That is part of the new US (and world, to some extent) order we are embarking on.

What exactly is the 'middle' class? 30-60k a year? 100-250? Does it take in to account your net worth or just what you're bringing in a year?

To me it's not a number, but more of a position.

To be able to not have huge debt, be able to work and save 15-20% down and buy a decent, modest house in a decent area, reasonably close to where you work, raise your kids, not have big money worries, live frugally but still afford some of the niceties every now and then, and retire at a reasonable age. (Not talking about $20K European vacations, GT3s in the driveway, a new car every 3 years, etc.)

That's the "middle class" that will get smaller and smaller.

Think about it, all that market value went somewhere, up mostly, it's not like the $ are getting thrown in a bon fire. It still exists somewhere.

The people losing their houses were never members of this middle class.

Agree that is true for a lot/most of them.

That's really the most uniformed statement I've ever heard here. I live in a city where 20% live below the poverty level according the the US Census. Property ownership starts at the middle class.

I think you just made my ignore list reserved for the inane and stupid.

Errr? If someone can't afford the house unless "creative financing" is invoked, should we believe they are "middle class"? If the people that live around you are frequently below the poverty level, how does that translate into either a loss of middle class (are you saying they should be middle class?) or into deserving to live in a home they own (even if they couldn't afford it in Kansas, much less Cali)?

entice them into the frying pan with easy money, pitch them out of the frying pan, into the fire, then borrow from the Chinese to tamp the fire down and pay for the guys who kept the profits and got bailed out to go to Dana Point for massages, facials and pedicures

Take away the ability to borrow money and you remove the middle class; plain and simple. That's why third world countries don't have any.

+1 for 911Rob

There is no middle class. There is the power elite and then there's everyone else.

fantastic comment. i believe i agree with that completely.