Middle Class in Crypto = Millionaire.
What is middle class?
There's actually quite a bit of debate as to what middle class even means.
If we type 'middle class' into Google this is the first picture that comes up, and is linked from the Wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_class
The middle class is a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy. Its usage has often been vague whether defined in terms of occupation, income, education or social status. The definition by any author is often chosen for political connotations. Modern social theorists—and especially economists—have defined and re-defined the term "middle class" in order to serve their particular social or political ends.
Within capitalism, middle-class initially referred to the bourgeoisie; as distinct from the nobility, then with the further differentiation of classes as capitalist societies developed to the degree where the 'capitalist' became the new ruling class, the term came instead to be synonymous with petite bourgeoisie.
I feel like if you asked someone on the street what middle class was they wouldn't say any of that.
Bourgeoisie means middle class?
If you look it up that's exactly what it means...
Even though many would say bourgeoisie means rich.
Also, what's up with that chart?
There's a class called Miserable? Really? Gross.
Also if you have $100k you are "poor"?
Lol who the hell made this garbage?
It's also very unclear how debt fits into all this.
Most people have negative wealth via debt.
Most people live paycheck to paycheck.
We can see how unclear this all becomes.
This is the kind of chart I'm much more familiar with.
Looking at income ranges rather than "class".
At the same time in many situations it doesn't even matter how much people make. The culture that we live in today cultivates an atmosphere of constantly spending beyond our means no matter how much money we are actually making. Even when I was making $12k a year in California, I was able to save up more and make better investments then most people who make $100k+. It's really crazy when you think about it, and also it becomes much more obvious how/why immigrants from say Mexico will come here on a work Visa making minimum wage and still have plenty of money left over to send back home. The mindsets and culture and family units operate completely differently.
There's also an argument to be made that middle-class 50 years ago means something a lot different than it means now. The middle-class has been getting squeezed for quite some time, and everyone knows that's a bad situation for the economy long term. Attacking small businesses during COVID and making people more dependent on work from home situations didn't exactly help this predicament.
Seriously though what's up with this chart.
Poor, middle class, and millionaires? And Miserables?
I'm having trouble understanding how this is the #1 portrayal.
Not lower-class or white-collar or upper-class...
Miserable and millionaire...
Meh, whatever.
Crypto though.
Seems like anyone who toughs it out in crypto long enough is simply bound to become a millionaire by design. What kind of effects will this produce within the economy? A strong middle class is a strong economy... but what happens when the crypto middle class is actually upper class on every other metric. I think living in a world with this kind of abundance is going to be pretty strange with an even weirder transition period.
How many couples out there fight about money as their #1 argument?
What if money is no longer a problem? Will crypto actually improve relationships? Is it possible that crypto could even statistically reduce domestic disputes and things like that? It's possible. It's also just weird to think about. Money can change a lot of things, especially when it is available in abundance.
Money in abundance is also known to cause corruption and greed. Even if money is abundant, our mindsets will likely still be rooted in scarcity for quite some time. Show me one billionaire who lives in abundance. Most rich people hang on to every last dollar like it's their last; that's how they got rich in the first place: scarcity mindset.
The grass is always greener.
There seems to be a tendency in crypto to keep the wealth preserved inside the community. I've seen it myself firsthand. People on Hive are much more likely to spend Hive on an app on Hive. They might have spent the money and it's "gone" but now the app owner controls that Hive, and the app owner might not spend it and choose to power it up instead. This is a lot different than dumping Hive on an exchange and draining the liquidity pools for everyone.
We also saw this happen with NFTs. Ethereum whales were willing to drop millions on JPEGs. A lot of that had to do with keeping the value within the system instead of allowing it to be extracted to another platform. People like to keep money "within the family" by nature. It's all part of the tribalism and community mindsets we see forged around here.
With crypto constantly expanding in value at exponential speeds, we must assume that the middle class is going to be a lot more wealthy than their predecessors. Not only that, they won't be drowning in debt and they'll even own the means of production, because the network owns the means of production and stakeholders own the networks. This is especially true on DPOS where our votes actually depend on the value we have locked in, and elections can't be hacked because they are enforced by encryption on an account to account basis. No more worrying about if those ballots were counted correctly or not.
Realizing lost potential
How many people out there want to better themselves? How many want to learn more and build more value than they are now, but they can't because they are stuck in a holding pattern of living paycheck to paycheck and barely getting by?
The demand is there.
We see it flaunted and exploited on a daily basis. How many MLM pyramid schemes are focus fired directly at housewives looking for a way to make some extra money?
- Amway (cleaning products)
- Herbalife (supplements shakes)
- Avon (makeup)
- Mary Kay (makeup)
- Doterra (essential oils)
- Scentsy (candles)
- Lula Roe (clothes)
- Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Like... what if crypto actually comes up with a non-scam that actually creates a community for these people and empowers them to build real value? The shear untapped potential that crypto has yet to monetize is a thing of legend, and everyone is still stuck on the fact that some of them are scams, and thus all of them must be scams.
Crypto is going to empower millions of people, and sure there will always be scams. That's the name of the game in a crazy permissionless system where code is law. But there will also be... not scams; Networks that actually deliver on their promises. There will be 'MLMs' and 'Ponzi schemes' that actually do what they claim to do (making them not scams at all), and that's pretty wild when you start thinking about how we haven't even come close to reaching this reality. Still early in the game.
Conclusion
In the last 50 years, the definition of 'middle class' changed greatly. In the next 50 years, the definition of 'middle class' will shift again just as hard, but in the opposite direction. The average person is on the verge of becoming a millionaire by design. Abundance is popping up all around us. All we have to do is show up to collect it and share it with others while building community.
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First off, I'm sure nobody here would define Middle class with any of the definitions above. Anyway, like you said, alot out there are looking for opportunities. Hive is changing lives, everyday we wake up to something new. An update or a project.
No matter the definition , I totally agree with this assumption. Alot of insane things happening these days.
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Miserable because it’s a global chart? Poor in the U.S. is a lot wealthier than miserable in Mozambique?
Exactly. There is no perfect chart to define this, maybe it should be according to regions.
Si definitivamente el mundo de las criptomonedas esta haciendo mucho mas asequible la riqueza a la gente común, solo viendo ese ángulo y empezar a entender ese otro punto de vista que para muchos aun hay escepticismo. Estamos en una época de grandes cambios
the general Hive user is WAY middle class most probably below it
Will greed also exist in crypto world?
Will those who have hold enough be willing to share and empower others.
Hive has empowered so many but I can still see people not willing to share the knowledge of hive with their neighbors hoping that they won't come onboard to beat their earnings
Crypto has empowered more lives than any government has every tried to.
lol my dad's ex fell for most, if not all, schemes on that list
Seriously, though
Given that many of the issues of our society have their roots in inequality, I think there is a good chance crypto could do wonders in reducing them.
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While this may be very correct. Positioning is very important as well. And Some people have zeroed their minds such that you can not even convince them that their lives could be a bit or lot more better. Who is to blame? Their scam experience or they themselves?
When you consolidate the debt of the majority, in terms of "assets they poses", they have nothing.
The incentivized economy on the other hand is actually putting real capital into the hands of people and not credit-based assets. The wealth shift will happen because he who actually has wealth as opposed to "paying it off" is the wealthy one... as you say, you just need to show up and begin collecting!
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That is an interesting take. I think it could be a possible shift but I have a feeling that there will be a ton of dead projects as well. So people need to invest into the right cryptos otherwise the middle class might not shift too much.
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Data is wrong IMO. The middle class is 500k-1M. And heavily depending on the area you life.
In the middle of nowhere, 500k can be middle-class.
In a booming area, 2M can be middle class.
The middle class in the classic meaning is "owning a house dept free" at a minimum.
Everything else is in the economic matter "poor".
But you told that already. In the past the meaning was different.
In the future will be middle class " renting a home and owning nothing".
But the lifestyle is a lot different too.
What i see is people spend a lot of money on stuff that has literally no resell value all day long.
Licenses for software and freedom activity. Fun and expensive consumer goods are more in favor of buyers than saving money and investing it.
Bad financial education.
Sounds good, but I don't think this will happen. For that, the avg need to understand how interest rates work.
Needs more financial education, less value spending on things they don't need.
Investing in the 20s is more valuable than investing in the 30s and so on.
It will never change "money" or "value" needs to be valuable and will always need work and have risks.
Maybe you are right and the future will be Disney land, but I don't think so.
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longest post you've ever written
put a pin in this one
gold star
I would imagine this is sarcastic because I always write long high-quality content! :)
with deep research!
Btw, to the 50 years middle class, I think something like the big mac index would be for long-term evaluations to work the best.
To have a comparison to purchasing power.
50k big macs net worth = middle class :P
I had this exact conversation with a friend the other day. If we keep playing our cards right especially with the benefits crypto affords us, we are on the road to hitting it big..
This is a beautifully written post.
P.S: Thank you so much for the support 😊
Crypto-wise, just like you said, the concept of middle-class or whatsoever-class are all undergoing changes and upgrades per year. And relatively because times are changing decentralization is evovlving, fiats are weakening etc.. @edicted
Las clasificaciones por clase ya no dicen nada, prefiero la clasificación: depredadores, víctimas y ciudadanos. Hay depredadores que tienen recursos así como están los que no tienen. Igual con los otros, pero el mundo necesita son ciudadanos.
This is very possible, but is this group ready to make the move into crypto? I think it's still going to take most a few more years to make the leap. Guess we'll see.
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If the miserable class is less than $10K a year, then I am ultra miserable class hell level, since I can't even earn $10K a year in a normal job in Venezuela. But as you say, if we talk in terms of crypto, then everything changes, since we see a better panorama.
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I think that chart isn't about yearly wage but more about what you own total.
Well, in that case I also keep mentioning the same reference LOL
Me too lol
LOL. Miserable class.
Were these charts made by organization that is trying to fight global poverty?
They will kind of skew data and make up stuff like this to fit their views. I do agree that half of the world is in poverty though.
All fingers are not equal. In every society we must see middle class of people
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All depends where you live in the world as middle class for one could be elite for others. My thoughts are crypto could change things drastically depending on what you invested into and for how long. 10 years should do it if you remain active within the likes of DeFi and staking. Things change and can see crypto investors leading the way in new wealth within the next decade surpassing doctors and lawyers comfortably.
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Middle class will definitely change a lot in the next 50 years since there will probably be 50 to 90% fewer people on the planet. Crazy times bro.
Yay! 🤗
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I highly doubt any of that is important unless you factor standard of living into this
So most of these people don't have any actual cash or considerable assets.. Sure their gross incomes are calculated but how their money allows them to live is the problem. When over 40% of americans will panic and not be able to afford a $500 emergency or they get knocked totally off their axis.
I think it's ridiculous to consider that an abundance of anything. that is just ridiculously ignorant.
As far as a crypto middle class. There is no crypto middle class. Crypto is astronomically worse than the standard of living we experience on average.
Crypto is almost like a lottery system where a few people a very small percentage hit big in crypto. They are akin to lottery winners. It's like the guy who plays lottery everyday and once in a blue moon he hits big. Most people barely have anything in crypto.
You all do you understand. i'm not even going to focus on the ridiculous shitcoins. you all do understand that 87% of bitcoin network is owned by only 1%. It's probably like 10 wallets holding most of that.
So where is all this abundance of opportunity. i think this is like the guy where you got the one scammer who lets the one guy get rich.. then he uses that one guy for every example. thats like you edicted, lol. That's you.
Crypto is accomplishing the goal it should. Nobody is going to take it serious until it does. I know alot of people go but there is all this money in crypto. yes from the institutions and venture capitalist and rich.. And guess what they in turn hold all that wealth in crypto just like they do in the standard economy.
So the poor ignorant people need to stop falling for crypto gimmicks.
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Nice read, totally agree with you.
When most people think about income = wealth, I like to think about what percentage of that income are you actually saving or investing, after covering your basic needs.
And by basic needs I mean eating nutritious food, being able to take care of your health, and living in an appropriate housing in a non toxic environment, some things that even a lot of so called rich-people don't seem to care for... crazy right?