Obama’s Middle Class task force has no middle class members

Claire Suddath writes a beaut:

Last Friday, Vice President Joe Biden and seven White House cabinet members traveled to Philadelphia to kick off the inaugural gathering of President Obama’s Middle Class Task Force. The task force will convene monthly in cities across the country to confront the problems faced by average Americans. It’s an admirable goal; with rising costs, stagnant wages and job cuts, a Pew Research study found that 78% of self-described middle class Americans have trouble maintaining their current standard of living.

Still, the middle class may have a better shot at making ends meet than at influencing the Middle Class Task Force. That’s because no member of the Middle Class Task Force is actually middle class. While defining America’s most beloved demographic group has never been an exact science, most academics agree that the term refers to anyone earning between $30,000 and $100,000 a year. (Median household income in the U.S. hovers around $50,000.) Every member of the President’s task force – from Biden ($227,000) to Council of Economic Advisors chair Christina Romer ($172,000) to energy secretary Steven Chu ($191,000) – makes well over $150,000, putting them in the top 5% of wage earners. (See pictures of crime in Middle America.)