The Disappearance of the Middle Class

The Disappearance of the Middle Class

22 September 2025

While the ink on my last piece about class as a dividing line was barely dry, I kept thinking about how the widening gap between rich and poor—a high Gini coefficient—splits society in two. Social cohesion evaporates. Suddenly, you also understand the loneliness and the pandemic of mental illness.

Valentine Vermeulen responded to that piece, pointing out something we have often discussed before: the disappearance of the middle class. She observes that people no longer feel at home and are leaving. The middle class is the connector. It is the heart of civil society. It is the class that still has the time and resources to contribute to others.

By coincidence, I then came across an article by Ronald Voorn, with whom I once worked, arguing that we must return to the center and not vote for the extremes—neither far right nor far left. He refers to the upcoming elections in the Netherlands. And he makes a strong point, because extremes divide.

This brought to mind my late mentor, Wim de Vrijer, who always spoke about the balance between “we” and “I”—the enlightened self-interest of Adam Smith. The middle, after all, keeps society in balance. And now, that middle class is disappearing, with all the consequences that follow.

So how do we begin to restore it? By rethinking the tax system so that citizens have more spending power, for example, by abolishing property taxes. By providing better education that opens stronger perspectives in the labor market. And by stimulating the creation of better jobs.

You can attend the conversation on September 30 at the Future of Work conference, organized by the SER.

Register via: www.ser.cw

Miguel Goede