We are All Middle Class / Dissappearance of the Middle Class

A startling statistic is that in a recent survey, something like 97% of the US population described themselves as either "upper middle-class", "middle-class", or "working class."

I'm partly encouraged by this as it conveys a very American mentality of egalitarianism and the desire to place oneself neither as "lower class" nor, interestingly, as "upper class". And there is still the stigma attached to the lower class. "Low class" has associations with low tastes, low education, so nobody wants to be considered "lower class."

It seems like a strange situation. On the one hand, Americans resist thinking of themselves in terms of their location in the income strata. We vehemently reject identification with a particular income group culture. We are all, apparently, middle class, which means absolutely nothing.

How many people actually know what income quintile they occupy? There has been a very loud division of the 99% and the 1%, but what about the top 20% or the bottom 20%? (granted, dividing the population into five groups is about a logical as dividing it into two, but there is value organizing based on common interest)

If you don't know where you stand, what your interests are, how can make rational decisions about your lifestyle, your future, and your representation in the city? If a political candidate makes a statement about fighting for the middle class, who is he or she talking about?

In light of the fact that income distribution in the US has steadily increased since the end of WWII, and the global trends around the world are of increasing income disparities, what does that mean for the hypothetical middle class? The median household income of the US is around 50K. If that's middle class, you'll be struggling in many major US cities.  15% of the US lives below the poverty line.