The vast majority of Americans, at all coordinates of the economic spectrum, consider themselves middle class; this is a deeply ingrained, distinctly American cognitive dissonance.

[I]f you don't feel or look rich, you don't necessarily feel the same sense of obligation that a traditional rich person does or should: Noblesse oblige is, after all, dependent on a classical idea of who is and is not the nobility. As that starts to fall away, obligation--to culture, to the future, to each other--begins to disappear too.

We have lots of homes for upper income people, but the middle class is being squeezed stagnant wages and the cost of homes rising so fast -- 8 percent, 9 percent a year.

This is the kind of substantial income increase many people need to remain in the middle class or enjoy some affluence.

The bottom line is that the Republicans' out-of-touch economic policies still harm many middle-class Americans worried about paying for their healthcare, their children's education and the higher cost of home heating.

The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke.