A study of trends in saving and consumption by middle and lower middle class at national level
INTRODUCTION
Right from our childhood days, our parents teach us that save penny and earned penny. The phrase highlights the significance of individual and household savings. With the passage of time, our elders constantly tell us that we should spend less than we earn and save some part for uncertain and better future use. Our elders also educate us to use resources and money according to our income, and our expenses should be less than our income. From the classical days, saving has been considered as one of the element of expansion and growth. In Indian economy, the household sector contributes the lion’s share of the total savings. As far as the household and rural household sector is concerned they have remarkable saving potential which has not been considered seriously by the policy makers and hence, measures have not been chartered to organize these enormous savings.
In this theory Keynes examined the tender of value function of money along with transaction function. According to Keynes in general there are tree motives that create the demand for money. They are transaction motive, precautionary motive and speculative motive.
1. Transaction motive
It refers to the demand for money for the present transaction of the people. Individuals and household keep cash in order to bridge the gap between receipt of income and the expenditure. This amount will depend upon the time
People are not being able to save because they are putting their wants in place of their needs. Saving money is one of the hardest things to do. First they need to develop a budget to be in control of where their money is going. One should record their monthly expenses, and any money saved for the month put away for emergencies. Today, people are making more money than ever before and still living paycheck to paycheck. Developing a budget will get one accustomed to living within their means and will open up more money for saving.
Contrary to the upper class, the middle class retains an opportunity for growth and therefore believes in the American Dream. However, their dreams shy away from the common view of the American Dream and instead revolve around their values and wants. Primarily, the middle class is defined as having an income between $46,960 and $140,900, although the economic boundaries that make up the middle class constantly varies (Luhby). Besides income, the middle class also can be identified by occupation, net worth, or education, but every middle class citizen, no matter how they are identified, experience similar circumstances (Elkins). The majority of the middle class yearn to have a nice home and secure job, along with extra money to enjoy their interests and hobbies. In addition, they strive to set aside savings for their children’s transition into the working world or future education. Although the middle class has more opportunities than lower class citizens, they still encounter their own struggles. For many middle class families, hard times come and go while they try to maintain a comfortable living situation. Money for them does not come as easily as it does for the upper class, who typically have enough to constantly feel stable. Nonetheless, the middle class obtains enough to live more
When we as human beings are born into this world, there are things that we have control over, and other things that we have no say in. We control what we do with our lives, what schools to attend, what activities to be a part of, and who we marry, for example. This seems to be quite fair, and for the most part, we take it for granted. While we do have these kinds of freedoms, there are other aspects of life that we have no control over. One thing that we are born into, is our social class. No matter who you are, there is a social class that you fall into, and you really have no say in it. The one social class that seems to be the most populated is the middle, or working class. These people usually classify
When it comes to the data and methods, this study used the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which is a repeated survey that includes the information on household income and wealth holdings; the Federal Reserve conducts this survey every three years. To test the hypothesis there are
Xie, Yu, and Yongai Jin. "Household Wealth in China." Chinese Sociological Review 47.3 (2015): 203-229. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Oct. 2015. Xie and Jin examine the level, distribution, and composition of household wealth in contemporary China. The study reveals that the richest one percent of the population owns over one third of the total national household wealth, while the poorest twenty five percent owned less than two percent in 2012. Housing assets in China show to be the largest component of household wealth, comprising seventy percent. The study also discusses how regional disparities and the urban-rural divide play significant roles in the household wealth distribution, wealth growth rate, and wealth mobility. I plan to use this study as informational background and a look into the state of affairs regarding Chinese society and the wealth disparity that is present.
In the reading of Middle Class Shrinks Further as More Fall Out Instead of Climbing Up, it is very true about the findings about the middle class. Honestly, 35,000 to 100,000 in today’s money are a huge gap differences. This is where now they started calling some individuals upper middle class. The article also, does a great job talking about Social Security. When was brings in Social Security, can a individual who was making 700 every week at Shoprite (which is middle class), at age 64, then retire a 66, and collect Social Security, and only get a paycheck for 600 every week, did they just get moved to lower class? In the reading The Shrinking American Middle Class says age is a big factor, as well as race, family status, and education.
A measure of the money supply which combines any liquid or cash assets held within a central bank and the amount of physical currency circulating in the economy. The money supply is divided into two distinct categories: M1—assets that can be easily accessed and immediately used to purchase goods and service. These are referred to as liquid assets. Money deposited in checking accounts meets this criteria because checks represent demand deposits, as they are paid “on demand” for the cash in the account. This is money which is available immediately for spending and therefore fulfills the medium of exchange function of money. M2—all of M1 and assets that cannot be used directly as cash but can be easily be converted to cash. This monetary aggregate
Thee middle class is constantly referred to as the “working class”. Former President Richard Nixon explains this in his speech address to the nation on labor day September 6, 1971. This speech was given to talk about something Nixon felt America has failed to achieve: a home without war or inflation. In his speech, he describes that this nation is under the impression that “it is immoral… to strive for a higher standard of living” (Nixon). He was explaining that this nation has come to know that where you are is where you stand you do not shift from that position. If you are making a life for yourself, you should be happy. Middle income Americans, however, cannot be held at a stand still. Because so many people make up the middle class, it is always a question to many Americans if they qualify as “middle class”. Richard Fry and Rakesh Kochhar are two of the many minds behind Pew Research Center. PRC is specific on being unbiased and developing har facts from both sides of a situation. In 2016, they made a study that provides a solution of who is considered middle class. It has been proved that over 51% of all workers are a part of the middle class (Fry and Kochhar). Thus, making up a little more than half of what our economy runs on. These middle class people are people with jobs like a secretary, a truck driver, even a high school teacher. These people contribute in everyday life throughout our society. Because the middle class makes up most of what is the working class, they definitely economically benefit the
Although the notion propels many political debates, it’s simply not true. At the very least, it’s a debatable proposition. Yet I can’t remember a single journalist, debate moderator, or editorial board pushing back when a politician drops the usual trope about the middle class “shrinking” or “being squeezed” or “stagnating” or being “murdered?” It’s simply a given that the middle class is under duress.
The number one reason why the rich get and stay rich and the middle class stay in the middle class is spending habits and debt. Debt is a one way ticket to always being in the rat race. Additionally, most Americans who are stuck in the middle class and will most likely never get out are those who embrace the worst kind of debt - money sucking debt. This is the debt which Visa, MasterCard and Amex use to pay their high-end executives who have luxuries most only dream about.
Whenever a second source of income is presented into the equation, it allows for an increased in savings. Moreover, their combined income overcompensates for the accrued expenses, which then they can establish how much of their income can be carried over to their savings account. Additionally, a combined income allows for an opportunity to purchase a home and one important reason behind it “is the addition of wife’s earnings to family income” (Hanson and Ooms, 624), which generated an increase number of home ownership, especially in young families below the age of 35 during the 1980s. Unfortunately, for lower class single-parent households owning a home was much more difficult and a great deal is because they don’t generate enough income to be able to save for a future
The advent of a new era with high price has contributed to rabid pursuit of money among people. Everyone wants themselves own more money so they can firstly minister to a better material condition. To be simple, just they can buy anything they want at the moment they want. It actually
Next another reason for the decline in the middle class is that there was not set middle class to begin with. In the article "What's Happening to the Middle Class?" by Michael T. Kaufman, the writer explains how the middle class was a broad definition during the eighties. Kaufman says the city of New York classified middle income as $32,000-$53,000 per household. The problem with that though was that because of the decline in the economy, people were significantly less than that.
In Friedman’s monetarist construct of money has two side that is highly active. One of the side is money is being the cause of all failures and asymmetries in the economy (in the short term). The other side is neutral which money is influencing only the price level (in the long term). The nominal quantity of money is determined by its supply. On the other hand, the real volume of the money stock is expressed in the amount of goods and services that can be acquired for a given nominal amount of money and is conditioned by the demand for money, which is directly related to the price level.
There are some economists who support a theory the U.S. economic system is without a social class system, in the typical sense. However, through many proven research methods, science leans in the opposite direction of that theory. It has been shown that humans have a natural tendency to not only roam in places where they feel as though they belong, but they also exhibit similar traits in spending based on their surroundings. The main idea of the article “Social Classes and Spending Behavior” by Pierre Martineau is to understand consumer spending behavior in different social classes in order to apply a specific research design, created by Lloyd Warner, to several different market models. When a consumer of visibly lower social class walks into a expensive department store, the clerks inside will treat her considerably different than they would if a different customer from a noticeably higher living standard walked in (121). By having the difference between them, people who have the same standard will be treated differently in subtle ways (121). Apart from how others from separate social classes are treated, there is also differences among consumers of the same income level, which serves as a better indicator of their social class, as opposed to income level. It is said that Middle-class people do not hesitate when buying refrigerators and other appliances which is durable goods, also no hesitation when buying things in discount houses and making purchase in bargain stores