As global poverty declines, we should beware the new class wars | Kenan Malik

We're told the world is turning middle class, but those at the bottom have little to cheer

Half the world is now middle class. So ran the headlines reporting a Brookings Institution analysis of global poverty, according to which 3.8 billion people can now be defined as "middle class" or "rich". We have, Brookings suggested, reached a "global tipping point".

Economic development, in China and India in particular, has helped pull millions out of poverty, a shift reflected in these figures. What is striking about the report, though, is as much what it obscures as what it reveals. The four categories in the Brookings analysis are: poor, vulnerable, middle class and rich. Notice what's missing? The working class.