Not having a degree is more disadvantageous to the United States than in France – Le Figaro

While the middle class has significantly eroded the US since 1996, the movement was much weaker in France. Overseas, the diploma plays more than in France.

In some ways, it is better to live in France and the United States. According to a study published Thursday by France Strategy, an organization linked to Matignon, one in two Americans belong to the middle class, against two in three French. And knowing that a person is considered to belong to this class when its income is between two-thirds and twice the median income (income sharing the population into two). Which in France, equivalent to an annual income between 16,550 and 49,650 euros for a single person.

Contrary to popular belief, level of education has a greater impact in the United States that in France. The probability of a person without the tray to belong to the class of low income is much higher across the Atlantic (59%) than in France (29%). Symmetrically, according to the OECD, the “yield” of education is higher in the United States, providing relatively more income to holders of a bac plus 3. In short, the American self-made man is partly the myth.

“What’s more, the middle class in the US is more heavily eroded over the period 1996-2012 (-3.6 points) and France (-1.5 point)” says the study. Overseas, the middle class has been eroded by an increase in both the proportion of people on low incomes and high incomes. Growth in recent years there has been unequal. From 2002 to 2007, two-thirds of the increase in GDP was picked up by 1% of the wealthiest. From 2009 to 2014, this proportion has decreased but remained very high (58%). Bottom line, the United States, the median income has stagnated from 2000, and even declined since 2008.

In France, economic history was different. “For all classes, the median income is constantly increasing up to 2008,” writes David Marguerit, the author of the study. The Hexagon is even, with Luxembourg, the only country to have experienced an increase in the middle class from 1985 to 2005. Things went awry after the 2008 crisis: the median income has declined and inequality increased. The middle class is therefore slightly less in 2012 – 67.4% of the population – in 1996 (68.9%). “It is too early to say whether this shift is only a temporary phenomenon related to the effects of the 2008 economic crisis, or if it marks a lasting rupture,” said France Strategy.

however, there is one area where the United States is much better: the integration of foreigners. Persons born outside the national territory in both countries have a higher probability of being in the class of low income as nationals. But the gap is greater in France (17.2 points) than in the US (+ 12.4%). It is true that the unemployment rate is not different in the United States for foreign and domestic, which is not the case in France.