Alva Review-Courier -

Fortune magazine devoted a 28-page section to “The Shrinking Middle Class.”

While most Americans consider themselves to be middle class, it is an elusive formula that decides. If you’ve ever questioned how your credit score was determined, the middle class formula is just as confusing.

The Brookings Institute has over a dozen formulas that attempt to categorize. It includes household income in between ever-changing amounts, income within a national percentage or median, distance from the poverty line and exclusion from the rich and the 1 percent.

The current poverty level in the U.S. is $24,33...