By definition, overcoming SA’s notoriously profound inequality requires that we grow the middle class. But what does that actually mean? “Middle class” is not a technical economics term, and in SA as in most countries the comfortable lifestyle portrayed in most TV shows is only available to the very wealthy.
It helps to analyse the differences between broad classes defined by SA’s actual income distribution. In line with Gabriel Palma’s approach, the poorest 50% of households — almost 9-million families — can be compared with the “middle class”, comprising the next poorest 40% , and the richest 10% . The analysis helps understand what it would mean for the poorest households to approach middle-class living conditions, above all by vastly increasing their economic opportunities. ..