What does it mean to be middle class in 2024?

Many Canadians call themselves middle class, a term frequently used by politicians to reach a broad audience. CBC’s Stephen Cook explores what it means to be middle class in 2024.

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[kloosternator]

The wealth gap is so large there is no middle class it’s poor, working class and rich

[Icecold]

Middle class now basically means that you bought a house, or secured a long term low cost rental prior to the madness. Less to do with income. More to do with housing situation now.

[marihutten]

Owns a home, can have 2 chidren on average, has at least one car, can afford one two week vacation somewhere, has 3 months of savings in case of job loss. That is middle class to me. In Toronto that would be a family of 4 with an income of 200-225k a year to make it happen.

[firstlast]

Poor people think they're middle class because the quality of life has steadily been decreasing for a few generations now. Call us the working class, the ones that keep the country going and paying the bills.

[Eusantdac]

The messed-up part is that here in Canada, we have space, we have resources, we have people, yet we're not building housing for regular people. All they're building are the shoe-box condos for millions of dollars. It's nuts.

[katelyndefreitas]

Middle class historically meant educated wealthy professionals that were a step below landed gentry and aristocracy. Anyone else was working class. If you worked for a living, you’re working class. Then, there’s the working poor, then those in poverty.

[DogsWithJobs]

Our financial system values ownership over productivity. The more you own, the less you need to produce through your labour. You make more money and pay the less taxes for not having to work. The whole system rewards those who already have wealth and punishes those working to gain it. Until that is fixed we will continue this downward spiral and you will see the average canadian productivity continue to drop and wealth inequality will continue to grow.

First step would be to make stock buy backs illegal again (they were illegal until the 80s) so companies are encouraged to invest in their workforce like they used to, rather than just pumping up their valuations for personal gain. The second step is to increase capital gains tax in order to reduce income and sales tax.

[johnnyisagoodbird]

The three classes are Working Class, the Ownership Class, and the Ruling Class.

By using 'middle' class, politicians have convinced three groups of working class people to blame each other instead of the ownership class.

[davidanthony]

There's countless variants/shades of middle class - It ultimately depends on if/when you bought your property.

[DarrellBrooks]

Disabled, CPP is $1117 a month. Rent... $1400. Car, gas, food, clothes... not even the start of it.

[degoo]

middle class is all about how you fund it. Nowadays, living middle class lifestyle (owning a home, a vacation every few years, supporting kids, able to save a little) and not have it be based on debt is what is being lost. Most people consider themselves middle class but are borrowing and maintaining precarious debt levels to maintain the lifestyle. I'd argue the terminology should be self funded middle class vs debt based middle class

[georgecuster]

Too many people in the world . 3 billion in 1970 and 9 billion today fighting for its resources .

[john_doe_not_found]

A middle class income allows 1 person to provide for a family, including property ownership and lifestyle.

Today, most families are dual income households. This piece explained it when it said, most people are middle income, not middle class. Being middle income is not the same thing as middle class. Middle income in Nigeria for instance means you earn about $2, 100/yr. But that does not mean you are middle class, you are still grossly poor.


As homeownership rates decline and most families require two workers to pay the bills, most families are working class in Canada. It is a sign of the times.

[dafarijones]

There are only two classes working class and capitalist class simple. Working class earn a wage, capitalist class earn off the assets or the labor of working class.

[Aridanx]

Born into a middle class family. Ended up a renter neo serf wage slave. Pretty much the story of a generation. Too many people lying to themselves about their lot in life.

[brianli]

Middle Class: Post-secondary degree, stable job in a company, define pension, a house with a yard, two kids, a dog, education savings for the kids. Annual trip to somewhere. retirement at 60 with no debt and 1 million dollar saving.

[offgrid-bound]

As long as we outsource manufacturing to China, middle class (whatever it means) will keep shrinking. We need to bring productive jobs back to Canada. Baristas and government bureaucrats don’t qualify.

[jaykay]

It's easy to define middle class based on a comparison of income to a rough average of yearly living expenses. But politicians WANT to keep the definition vague to make their talking points sound better.

[MrSohildeep]

I feel poor after coming to Canada, back in my home country….i had big house, no mortgage or any loan payments……Did not had to look at prices when buying something small like groceries, had domestic help and even tea was served at bed, enough savings to maintain this lifestyle not for just my entire life but even next generation could do so because money spend was really low compared to what we were getting …..to me that was the true middle class

[dsbarclayeng]

People are either rising in wealth, or dropping down. Nothing is static.