I have skimmed through this thread (very interesting) and also read a few of the book reviews for Limbo. It leaves me wondering if I know what middle class is. I guess I have a concept of "poor" that most would agree with. But what is middle class? I have always considered mainstream America to be middle class. I thought blue collar workers were middle class. The book, Limbo, and some of the comments on this thread suggest otherwise. A lot of tradesman and factory workers make as much or more than college educated people, so I have never considered one's job status such as "workman" or "management" as the element that defines middle vs. upper class. I have always viewed middle class as sort of a typical median income family, regardless of what one does to earn that money. Lower class families fall into a different bracket, as do upper class families, based purely on their income levels. Am I looking at this in an odd way? "Upper Middle Class" is even harder to define. I tend to think of it as above median income but less than some nebulous number that constitutes wealthy.
I believe that blue collar workers are sterotyped to have less sophistication, less interest in the finer things of life, less education etc. but I am not sure how much one can generalize about that, either. So, if all the blue collar workers are "poor" just who IS the middle class? I hope I am not diverting this thread too far off course, but this is all very fascinating.
The sad thing is that I see some people who really need public assistance somehow just don't qualify for it. 
