The Middle Class: Canary in the Gold Mine

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of IHeartRadio.

**Josh** (0:11)
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and Jerry's here, too. Sitting in for a good old-fashioned Stuff You Should Know episode.

**Chuck** (0:20)
That's right. Not one of those new-fangled ones?

**Josh** (0:24)
No, no, not one of the new ones that are just like, you know, all hair gel and, you know, style, no substance.

**Chuck** (0:31)
Yeah, still has that new podcast episode smell.

**Josh** (0:34)
Yes, for sure. Speaking of new smell, how do you feel being 55-birthday-boy?

**Chuck** (0:41)
New smell. You know, it's great. I think I have actual privileges now that come with that age.

**Josh** (0:49)
Like cheap coffee at McDonald's, that kind of stuff?

**Chuck** (0:52)
Yeah, I don't know about McDonald's, but like, I think my, I think I can play golf for a little cheaper now. Like, literally, as the senior rate, which is hysterical.

**Josh** (1:03)
Yeah. Well, I think you can get an AARP membership now, too. Oh, yeah.

**Chuck** (1:08)
I mean, you're probably already getting that stuff in the mail, right?

**Josh** (1:10)
They start early. No, I'm not even 50 yet. They won't let me. I keep applying and they keep denying me.

**Chuck** (1:17)
Okay, maybe 50 I mean, they start sending in that stuff years ahead.

**Josh** (1:20)
Yeah. We used to have one, you had to get it for work or something like that, but they found out what our age is and they got really mad.

**Chuck** (1:27)
They said, we've been sending things to spring chickens.

**Josh** (1:32)
But yeah, well, let me know how the golf thing goes and if you get cheap coffee at McDonald's and what being a senior is like, Chuck, because I think for me and Jerry and everybody, we just want to wish you a happy birthday.

**Chuck** (1:44)
I appreciate that.

**Josh** (1:45)
People went bonkers on Instagram. Yeah.

**Chuck** (1:48)
Was that you?

**Josh** (1:50)
Yeah, of course.

**Chuck** (1:51)
I figured, you know what my uncle wished you a happy birthday?

**Josh** (1:57)
Did he? On that post, I didn't see that.

**Chuck** (1:59)
Yeah, it was pretty funny. Then there was a confusing series of texts where he was finally like, is it your birthday? I was like, it was a few days ago, sure.

**Josh** (2:07)
He said, who is this?

**Chuck** (2:09)
Yeah, exactly.

**Josh** (2:10)
He said, McGovern.

**Chuck** (2:12)
Not McGuffin.

**Josh** (2:13)
No, McGovern.

**Chuck** (2:14)
Okay.

**Josh** (2:17)
All right. Let's start talking because we're talking about the middle class. In America at least, although this definitely extends to other countries like the UK, some of the Nordic countries, Australia, there's not an obsession, but a real like obsession with the middle class. How it's doing, how mobile it is, upwardly, downwardly, and there's, it's essentially the middle class is like the thumbnail metric for the health, the real true health of a society and economy. Would you agree?

**Chuck** (2:53)
Yeah. I mean, I think so. And I think that used to be a real, like, it's always been a talking point in the United States, but I think it used to be a real genuine talking point. Yes. Whereas now, I think it's like, you know, are all the rich people doing great? Okay, all right. Now, let's talk publicly a little bit about the middle class, I guess.

**Josh** (3:13)
Right, but not everybody's fallen for that. There's like this whole idea that the middle class and the health of the middle class was a canary in the coal mine. Yeah. And not only is the canary dead, it caught fire at some point. Yeah. As far as a lot of people are concerned about the United States middle class at least, because there's this idea that it's dead. But then if you read up a little further on it, you come across other people who are like, no, no, dude, look at these statistics. Right. Like the middle class is actually doing great, way better than they used to be doing. And other people are like, that just doesn't quite add up. So when you get into it, it's really tough to define the middle class. And you can monkey around with who's middle class or who's not and come up with all sorts of different profiles. But I think ultimately it just matters what people who would probably self-identify as the middle class feel about the economy and about their prospects in life.

**Chuck** (4:08)
Yeah, for sure. Like, what is that, the vibe session?

**Josh** (4:13)
Yeah.

**Chuck** (4:14)
What was her name?

**Josh** (4:15)
Kyla Scanlon. She's a kind of a Gen Z financial explanatory journalist. Yeah. Yeah.