I think it's a matter of values and knowledge, not just income.
Do you know a working-class family that wouldn't LOVE to spend more resources on helping their children get a leg up? If you don't have the income, your values and knowledge don't matter. You have to have it to spend it.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/retirement/2008-05-19-generation-x-retirement_N.htmAll of the following in inflation-adjusted dollars:
- The median income for men now in their 30s is 12% lower than what their dads earned three decades earlier
- From 1974 until 2004, family income rose only 9%.
- Health insurance soared 74% since 1970
- The mortgage payment that a median-income family is paying for a three-bedroom, one-bath house jumped 76%
- The average cost of owning a car has declined from a generation ago. But auto-related expenses jumped 52% because the typical family now owns at least two vehicles. (because both parents work)
The fact that working class families have managed to increase their spending on their children at all despite all these crushing economic forces clearly shows that their values are in the right place.
On the other end, what's an extra $5300 a year in non-inflation-adjusted dollars to a typical affluent family whose income has skyrocketed over the same span?
