Penna Dexter

Daily, we grieve over the bad news of hurricane devastation. Perhaps it’s time for some good news. Here’s some: The Washington Post’s Robert Samuelson writes: “The middle-class comeback may be the year’s most underreported story.” The 2008-2009 financial crisis and the ensuing recession hit America’s middle class hard. Many Americans lost jobs. Many lost homes through foreclosure. And many accumulated debt to get through the crisis. But things have improved, dramatically. In a column entitled, “The Quiet Comeback of the Middle Class,” Robert Samuelson describes the revival and expansion of America’s middle class. Are we really through the crisis? Americans themselves seem to think so. The Gallup organization regularly asks people to report their social class. In 2006, 60 percent identified themselves as either middle or upper-middle class. Thirty-eight percent said they were working or lower class, and only one percent identified as upper class. Robert Samuelson points out that the financial crisis and Great Recession “demolished these long-standing class patterns, according to the same self-identifying Gallup polls.” By 2015, as the economy was improving, in this same poll, only 51 percent of Americans surveyed placed themselves in the middle or upper classes, with 48 percent saying they fell into the working and lower classes. But, in 2016, the survey results changed dramatically. Mr. Samuelson says they have essentially “returned to pre-crisis patterns.” Gallup’s most recent poll on class identity, done in June, shows 62 percent identifying in the middle and upper classes and 36 percent classifying themselves as working or lower class. Mr. Samuelson points to other polls that show Americans agreeing with the statement: “It’s a good time to find a quality job” and reporting that they’re getting ahead and that they do not expect that their jobs will be outsourced abroad. In the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers, half of households surveyed reported their “finances had recently improved, the best reading since 2000.” This economic good news comes at an opportune moment. Today’s bad news brings us great opportunities to be generous.