THOUGHTS OF FEMOLAD: THE DISAPPEARING MIDDLE CLASS

 

THE DISAPPEARING MIDDLE CLASS

The economic debate on the existence and definition of the middle class has become particularly lively in many developing countries.

The middle class group can be defined as those for which the probability of falling into poverty is below a certain threshold.

Up to the seventies the socio-economic strata was made up of three levels.

There were the rich and there were the poor. Then there were the ones that were neither rich nor poor. They were the MIDDLE CLASS. They formed about 60% of the population.

According to data from Pew Research, the share of adults who live in middle-class households was 61% in 1971.

This class of people were the Civil Servants, Corporate Employees and Traders and Craftsmen.

Most families we grew up with were in this category.

They could afford the basic things of life. They had access to Education, health and good housing.

The middle class is defined by five factors: education, occupation, income, lifestyle, and housing.

The poor and children of the poor struggled to climb up the social ladder. Their climb was quite easy and attainable through education and self-development.

By the early seventies the population of people in the middle class began to reduce.

The rise in the cost of living, combined with stagnant wages/salaries and inflation were the main contributors to the shrinkage of the middle class.

By 2013, the population of the middle class had shrunk to about 20%.

The figure had gone as low as 15% in 2021.

In Nigeria today, 80% of the population are either poor or rich.

Nigeria’s middle class has spending power and aspirations to match.

The socio-economic indices have made it almost totally impossible for the poor to climb up to middle class.

Many people in the middle class have fallen below the line to the lower stratum. The basic things of life such as education, occupation, income, lifestyle, and decent housing are no more affordable to the middle class or “Average Nigerian”.

“Some people have everything while some people have nothing.” That line from a song by a popular Reggae musician sums up the situation.

The result is the “Get rich Quick” attitude in both young and old in the country.

Climbing from poverty through middle class was a steady and gradual process.

The tendency to want to jump from the poor to the rich without passing through middle class has resulted in crimes and corruption.

The gap left by the near absence of the middle class has led into desperation to become rich and live in wealth at all cost.

Unless conscious efforts to stabilize the economy and provide the basic necessities the middle class will totally disappear.

Then controlling or curtailing the social ills will be a herculean task for both government and the people.