By Jordan Rosenfeld
Publication Date: 2026-03-18 11:15:00
As the American dream of living a financially stable life slowly erodes in the face of increasing costs of living and other economic pressures, the middle class also feels like it’s disappearing.
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Households in the lower end of the middle class are living paycheck to paycheck in some states while the average middle class tries to hang on to their status in the face of increasing top 1% growth.
To determine if the middle class could actually disappear, I asked AI models ChatGPT and Perplexity if they think the middle class will disappear, and if so, when.
ChatGPT said that the middle class isn’t likely to disappear altogether, though the version of it many people grew up expecting “is eroding.” It considers what is happening to the middle class as more of a split or fracture than a disappearance.
Drawing on data from sources like the Pew Research Center, it suggested that what we have now is a smaller, more secure upper middle class and a larger, more stressed “working middle” that earns decent income but lacks buffers. There’s also a growing group that falls out of the middle class repeatedly, even if they technically qualify by income.
The AI Perplexity also wouldn’t commit to the idea of a disappearing middle class but agreed it is “changing shape.”…
