No statistics can alone define the “middle class”. However, a simple way to follow its evolution over time is to be interested in the group of the population between the poorest 50 % and the richest 10 %. There are, of course, finer criteria (diploma, profession, relational capital, etc.) which cut at least in part the delimitation retained here.
The middle class truly appears in the 20th century e century, thanks to the strong growth of the salaries of the intermediate professions, in a context of decline in the yield of the wealthy classes under the effect of shocks Of the two world wars, but also and above all of social policies of the 1930s and 1950s. At the beginning of the 20th e century, the 40 % of the area of the income scale had only 15 % in France in France total heritage, the 10 % of the top everything else (financial active, real estate, businesses, land, etc.). While the assets of the poorest 50 % capped at less than 5 % of the total, that of the middle class increased from 1910 to reach 25 % in the immediate post-war period and still grows during the “Thirty Glorious” To reach around 40 % in the early 1980s.
The situation has returned for forty years: the heritage and wages of the middle class have grown less quickly than those of the wealthiest. For example, the entry salary of college teachers around the minimum wage in 1980, against only 1.2 today. Over the same period, the share of the middle class assets dropped to 35 % of the total in France, for the benefit of 10 % of the top.
The heritage of the middle classes is made up, typically, of a property completed by savings or even professional heritage (small trade), all up to 220,000 euros on average per adult, net of debts. The 10 % of the top have, in addition to real estate, a very important financial capital (shares, securities, etc.). Because of this middle class appetite for real estate, the outbreak of housing prices has contributed to containing its relative decline, but the young generations from the middle and popular classes, on the other hand, have very great difficulties in accessing property .
“sandwich” with bitter taste
But the historical heritage of the middle class is also the public service. The democratization of access to higher education has greatly benefited it, as is the major housing construction programs – directly, or indirectly by relaxing the real estate market. In return, the 40 % of the distribution community pays 50 % to 55 % of their income in taxes and social security contributions. This rate is higher for the middle classes than for the wealthy classes, which is contrary to the principle of fiscal progressiveness. The recent reduction in financial assets and its income has only strengthened this phenomenon, and comes to complicate consent to tax.
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