Black surpasses white middle class in SA

[rpm]

Black surpasses white middle class in SA

A new report reveals that South Africa's black middle class has surpassed the white middle class, due mainly to government's affirmative action policy.

 

[Creag]

Great news. Now how do we improve the quality of life of the rest of the population? And when can we move on from Affirmative Action?

 

[TelkomUseless]

Good news. Wonder how many of them are employed by the state.. because looking at the country growth rate we suck. And getting rid of AA would be ideal.. but that will never happen.

Edit: I think we could have much bigger middle class (or richer) , better country etc if the ANC didn't steal/mismanagement so much tax funds.If they (ANC) would just be more investor friendly, we all could have been better off..

 

[Fulcrum29]

Great news. Now how do we improve the quality of life of the rest of the population? And when can we move on from Affirmative Action?

The government is playing the numbers game according to demographics.

80,7% : 19.3%

IIRC, it was only the other day where they stated the white middle and high income classes dominating all the sectors. I don't think this report is agreeing with the government report...

 

[phoneJunky]

Using the cut-off of R25,000 per capita income per year

That can't really be middle class can it?

 

[ToxicBunny]

That can't really be middle class can it?

From an African perspective, it very much is.

 

[Lupus]

That can't really be middle class can it?

In 2000 possibly (as the article states), if I remember what I could do with my part time job salary in 2000 it is a strong possibility.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

This is just a manipulation of stats in order to paint themselves in a favourable light.

A more telling picture would be the percentage of black population who are middle class, versus the percentage of the white population.

 

[JustAsk]

Old news.

 

[cerebus]

This is just a manipulation of stats in order to paint themselves in a favourable light.

A more telling picture would be the percentage of black population who are middle class, versus the percentage of the white population.

An even more telling picture would be the actual wealth and income breakdown of the middle classes. If 10 million black people are 'middle class' by earning R30000/year, and 1 million whites are middle class by earning R700k/year, it's still massively skewed.

Then halfway down the report changes to the African continent.

 

[cybershark]

and this info will be reflected in SARS demographics when?

 

[Shi]

From an African perspective, it very much is.

Quite a few different views of what is middle class http://www.bdlive.co.za/economy/2014/09/03/would-the-black-middle-class-please-stand-up . One of them states

The researchers define the middle class as people with an income threshold of R4,100 a month (in 2012 prices

 

[Shi]

Our middle class is still very small compared with most developed countries — 70% of the population still lives in households earning less than R6,000 a month — so there is still a long way to go

From the article above, this is the main sticky point.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Yeah, it is a very fluid concept..

And what classifies as white middle class will be very different from black middle class, as would Indian middle class....

 

[w1z4rd]

Weve been through this before, they have a definition of middle class that many of us have debated before.

I think the last time it was insanely low requirements. Things like owning a fridge and such. There are criteria that have nothing to do with race that they use to work out what they call the middle class.

I wish I could find that thread or those criteria, but I remember it being debated around the time of the census.

 

[JustAsk]

Weve been through this before, they have a definition of middle class that many of us have debated before.

I think the last time it was insanely low requirements. Things like owning a fridge and such. There are criteria that have nothing to do with race that they use to work out what they call the middle class.

I wish I could find that thread or those criteria, but I remember it being debated around the time of the census.

No, what you're refering to with the fridge, is questions the census people asked for statistical purposes.From wiki - census 2011

Household economic indicators

There are about 14.5 million households in South Africa,[21] 77.6% live in formal dwellings, 7.9% in traditional and 13.6% live in informal dwellings.[22]

Average household income is R103 204 per year with 13.18 million of the population employed.[18]
Main article: Water supply and sanitation in South Africa

A total of almost 1.3 million households have no access to piped water and as far as sanitation is concerned 8,242,924 have flush toilets, 297,847 households use bucket toilets and 748,597 households have no toilet at all.[23]

Domestic appliance ownership is as follows; 11.1 million have an electric or gas stove, 9.9 million own a refrigerator. Washing machines are found in 4.6 million households and 2.5 million own a vacuum cleaner. Car ownership extends to 4.3 million households.[21]

In terms of access to media and telecommunications 10.7 million own a television and 8.6 million have a DVD player while approximately 9.4 million have internet access, although not necessarily in the home. More than 12.8 million households have mobile phones.[21]

The definition for middle class change from researcher to researcher. Also keep in mind that we have lower,middle and upper middle class. As someone already pointed out, in 2012 middle class was define broadly as earning R4100 in 2012.

 

[Polymathic]

I consider R4100pm to be working class, I would say an household earning R12000 to be middle class

 

[w1z4rd]

No, what you're refering to with the fridge, is questions the census people asked for statistical purposes.From wiki - census 2011


The definition for middle class change from researcher to researcher. Also keep in mind that we have lower,middle and upper middle class. As someone already pointed out, in 2012 middle class was define broadly as earning R4100 in 2012.

No, the questions I remember scored you and then let you know if you were considered middle class by that standard.

 

[nightjar]

Black surpasses white middle class in SA

A new report reveals that South Africa's black middle class has surpassed the white middle class, due mainly to government's affirmative action policy.

I would suspect that, whatever the stats are made to show, whites still contribute the vast majority of the SARS income.

 

[kianm]

That can't really be middle class can it?

Agree with you, 25k annual is ...