Brittany W.
22, mom of a 2-year-old, works at Valleyfair amusement park, lives with her mom in Lakefield, Minn.
“We’re middle-class. We’re not poor. We can’t afford the kids, but we’re not poor. You don’t have any credit being young.
I can’t afford school. Can’t afford the education to get the job to get a place. I could
be making
the cure for cancer, but no. You all don’t want to put me in college, so I can’t afford it.”
Lona P.
72, retired, lives in Edina, Minn.
“I saw some beautiful things today at Nordstrom, but I can’t afford them. I’m not middle-class, not now. I used to be. I’m on a fixed income, I’m a retiree.”
Alex M.
28, a sonographer from Scottsdale, Ariz., shopping with his wife, Audra H., a nurse
“We have to make sacrifices for things that we want. Right now, we’ve been slowly remodeling our house. We’ve saved a lot of money doing stuff ourselves. I laid all of the tile with Audra’s dad in our house, and we’ve done all the painting. We’ve done
all of that
just to save money.”
Anna F.
61, former hotel
and restaurant owner,
lives in Chicago, Ill.; originally from Poland
“We should be the middle class. But I think for several years, we are not. We had several businesses. We worked hard. I worked 35 years in the business, built it up, and then in 2010 lost, like, $7 million. We lived a comfortable life before, and now we’re just living from check to check. We’re definitely supporting Trump. I came here 35 years ago. You could do anything in this country. You could start from nothing. It’s still a beautiful country, so I’m hoping for the best. At least my children graduated. Three of them are doctors, so hopefully the medical school’s going to get them somewhere.”
David D.
45, a lawyer who lives in Minneapolis
“I would describe myself as middle-class. My wife and I have four kids, and we both work. And we do fine. You know, we’re not in poverty by any stretch. We probably do better
than most. But we don’t live in a lake house with 5,000 square feet, right? For tax purposes, we’re in probably the top 3 or 4 percent of income earners. But we don’t make $500,000 a year, we don’t make $1 million a year, right?”