In common discourse in America, at least, &quot;middle-class&quot; doesn&#x27;t really seem to mean either of these things. It generally seems to refer to people who are not recognizably in poverty, but are not recognizably wealthy either — think of the stereotypical &#x27;50s atomic family that you&#x27;ve seen on so many TV shows, which owns a home and a car and can reliably put food on the table, but is still strongly dependent on wages and can&#x27;t afford a large amount of luxuries.<p>So when people talk about the decline of the middle class, I think they mean a decline in people who are not obviously poor or rich, and instead fall &quot;in the middle.&quot;