'sgarding erin currier comment about class being part of a social identity, yes it is. what is middle-class? i used to define myself as a middle-class citizen. poorer than they are. when you take financial security on the long term and short-term -- that is up to you. i believe that 40 years after my parents were born and i was born, i am worse off. host: what kind of work do you do and what kind of work your parents do? caller: my parents were both in the military. they went to wall street. my wife is veterinarian and i am a consultant. we worried about the long-term job market. wages are not going to get any higher. when theflorida recession hit, i am in chicago now, i grew up in new york. i solid the recession did. i saw how employers reacted. i really worried. theke and say i am probably first middle-class person out there. [laughter] ant: if you could give us idea of the income you generate? take in just over six figures. we are holding off on having kids. my wife is a couple of years older than me. we're worried about the long-term. we thought chicago was better.

'sgarding erin currier comment about class being part of a social identity, yes it is. what is middle-class? i used to define myself as a middle-class citizen. poorer than they are. when you take financial security on the long term and short-term -- that is up to you. i believe that 40 years after my parents were born and i was born, i am worse off. host: what kind of work do you do and what kind of work your parents do? caller: my parents were both in the military. they went to wall street. my wife is veterinarian and i am a consultant. we worried about the long-term job market. wages are not going to get any higher. when theflorida recession hit, i am in chicago now, i grew up in new york. i solid the recession did. i saw how employers reacted. i really worried. theke and say i am probably first middle-class person out there. [laughter] ant: if you could give us idea of the income you generate? take in just over six figures. we are holding off on having kids. my wife is a couple of years older than me. we're worried about the long-term. we thought chicago was better.

middle class with jim tankersley, "washington post" economic correspondent and erin currier with pew charitable rusts. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. isit ncicap.org] host: and this morning's "washington journal" is a look at america's middle class, how it's defined, how it's managing, what it means today to be middle class and most importantly, what is your life like in the middle class? if you consider yourself to be in america's middle class, we want to hear your story this morning and the numbers are on your screen. 202-748-8000 for those of you in the east and central time zones. 202-748-8001 if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones. now you could also make a comment via social media. and you can join the conversation already taking lace on our facebook page, facebook.com/c-span. what's your life like in the middle class is the question. recently, the pew research center came out with a study. here are some of the findings. w

erin currier, what did you hear?st: i think what mike is getting at, we have done some public opinion polling about whether it is a term that resonates with americans, whether they feel they can still achieve the american dream. what we heard loud and clear was that what americans to find as the american dream is their children being better off than --, or being better off than their parents, and being able to have some personal agency and to sleep well at night, to be able to pay all of your bills with income you have coming in, set a little aside for savings. americans do not believe the american dream is about being rich. they don't even really believe it is throughout being middle class -- really believe it is about being middle class. but financial security, being able to be in control of your own destiny is a really big part of the way americans believe that our country is structured and should be structured. and the more that that feeling disintegrates, that it feels like difficult to getting ahead, that wears

middle class with jim tankersley, "washington post" economic correspondent and erin currier with pewle rusts. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. isit ncicap.org] host: and this morning's "washington journal" is a look at america's middle class, how it's defined, how it's managing, what it means today to be middle class and most importantly, what is your life like in the middle class? if you consider yourself to be in america's middle class, we want to hear your story this morning and the numbers are on your screen. 202-748-8000 for those of you in the east and central time zones. 202-748-8001 if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones. now you could also make a comment via social media. and