Poorer, gloomier middle class voices echo 'lost decade' seen in new study

http://business-news.thestreet.com/inside-bay-area/story/poorer-gloomier-middle-class-voices-echo-lost-decade-seen-new-study-1/1

"It really is a lost decade," says Hayward resident Sherry Revak, who believes her middle-class life is "very different" from what her grandparents' generation experienced.

The middle class has shrunk in size since 2000, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some of its characteristic faith in the future, according to a Pew Research Center survey of middle-class adults and an analysis of government data.

The 32-year-old and her husband lost their jobs in 2009 and, though the college graduates found new work within a year and make well above the median, they are still having trouble getting back on track.

They used up all their savings and don't have a retirement fund. They both drive decade-old cars and say it hurts to pay $3,300 a month for their relatively modest South Hayward home.

Among Americans who see themselves as middle class, the Pew report shows 85 percent say it is more difficult now than a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living.

Their gloomy assessment comes after a decade in which mean family incomes declined for Americans overall for the first time since the end of World War II. Median income for a 3-person middle-class household is $69,000, just under the amount most middle-class people consider their average, according to Pew.