"The middle isn't that great" several ways i think the middle-class gets screwed...

The Middle isn't That Great

I belong to a middleclass family. We're not poor, but we don't make a whole lot. Last year there was a tax return bonus for families with a certain income. We really needed that money because I was about to get my wisdom teeth pulled, my sister had just gotten in an accident and there were tons of bill that had to be paid, like insurance and credit card debts. But we soon found out that we wouldn't get that extra tax bonus because we didn't fall within the income range. The ones who received the money were the families who made less than we did and the ones who made more. It didn't make any sense to me why some of the ones who needed it the most wouldn't get it while the families who were making more than us did. We, the middleclass family, got ripped off.

English: US Citizens with Private Health Insurance...

Acceptance marks displayed on top left of this sig...

English: First 4 digits of a credit card

And tax returns aren't the only thing that we get cheated out of.

Many middleclass families can't afford good health insurance do to the high monthly costs of $500 a month1, but not having health insurance can cost way more than if someone did. According to Time magazine, on average, uninsured hospital patients get charged five times more than insured patients2. How can someone afford that, paying five times as much when you have nobody there to help you. If there's one accident, you could be in debt for the next twenty years.

Then there's the credit cards and loans to pay off things such as hospital bills car insurance or just buying groceries to live on. According to USA Today, the average credit card debt for a middle-income family is over $5,0003. Once a family gets in debt, it's hard to get out.