A little history on where this term came from.  It was a product of the Eisenhower Administration. He was attempting to refocus the nation away from a very, very, very popular administration under Franklin Roosevelt and Roosevelt loved to refer to these people as the "working class". Under Roosevelt's view, everyone was a "worker" but along came Joseph McCarthy (and Richard Nixon) who made his political career hunting down communist behind every rock.  The communist mantra was, is, and will always be - "Workers of the World, Unite!" so under a democratic government, the association between "worker as community" and "worker as class" irritated people.  It sounded like the same thing.  It was a bit of genius on the part of Eisenhower's administration to put some ideological distance between American workers and communist workers, so that's really why the term "middle class" appealed to Americans.

Since Eisenhower the term has been nuanced a great deal and refined and has now evolved into what you are talking about here: a sense that "middle class" doesn't quite tell the story as well because there are lots of people - white people especially - who would never say they are "lower class" because they associate that status with racial minorities - black people.  They very well may be as dirt poor and disadvantaged because of their economic status, but they don't like the stigma of being pooled with the truly poor.

Me? I'm definitely Top middle class right now, but looking at the recent economic earthquakes, I feel like the Anxious Middle since all of my wealth is tied to a retirement account that lost a third of it's value in the past month. We have pulled the belt notches all the way in here in my house. It's hard to say, actually. Pew doesn't put a dollar figure on any of the categories so you don't really know how you compare.

Thanks for the information.  Interesting piece of history. 

Regardless of which group you fall into, because our Government refuses to do anything about illegal immigrant slave labor, you more than likely will continue to spiral downward.

My Father use to support a family on a truck drivers salary. Try doing that today. He was paying for a home, car, and supporting four children on his income. We went on vacations every year, generally camping. Always doing something on at least one night per weekend, whether it be roller skating at the rink, going to a hockey game, Cal Palace rodeos, something.  That was the days when a Mother could stay at home and tend to her children. They were being brought up in a home with two parents to care for them. We wonder why we have so many drop outs, gang bangers, druggies, etc. No one is at home to make sure they are behaving, doing homework, etc. President Bush patting himself on the back for all the job growth we had. What good is all the added job growth if it is for minimum wages. Heck even if both parents work for min. wage, you are still dirt poor, regardless of color, white, brown, black, it doesn't matter. Your Poor!

I think a whole lot more of us have moved from "Top of the Class" to "Anxious" or even "Struggling" now since that article was written in July and the research was from even earlier.