Exploring the squeezed middle: Aucklanders talk about being ‘squeezed’

ABSTRACT

This research explores how middle-class Aucklanders, participants in ‘the middle’, see themselves in terms of being squeezed. It is intended to augment existing statistical based work on class stratification and life chances and facilitate aspects of qualitative research around giving voice. The research confirms the notion of a squeezed middle for the participants based in Auckland, and a striking feature of that confirmation is the centrality of age in demarcating both resourcing (in particular, homeownership versus renting) and narratives. Insofar as the research captures the zeitgeist of the middle, this confirms a neoliberal governmentality wherein a class analysis is interpolated with personal responsibility – and the latter remains paramount. Further, the research demonstrates that empathy is associated with social proximity. The semi-structured interviews also illuminated a widespread sense of resentment. This had two dimensions: directed against neoliberalism as an historic transformation that is seen as the cause of an increasingly squeezed middle, and; against baby boomers. Participants in their 40s demonstrated the highest levels of resentment, and this confirms other research which identifies them as a problematic age cohort because of changing socio-economic conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Middle class
• neoliberalism
• Auckland
• housing
• life course

Introduction

The squeezed middle class is a formulation of social change which reflects mounting international concern about the end of prosperity and loss of life chances for a previously buffered social stratum. The implications of a multi-faceted squeeze on the middle class are considerable and it is argued the downsizing of aspirations of this stratum has the potential to result in considerable socio-political disruption. This reflects that the presence of a prosperous middle class has long been seen as an important component of a stable liberal democracy (Fukuyama 2014). However, prosperity and stability are seen as increasingly problematic by a range of theorists. This concern has arguably accelerated in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis (2007-2008). Henceforth the middle class is variously labelled as ‘no longer coping’ (Reich 2008), ‘shrinking’ (Davey 2012; Blanchard and Willmann 2016) and ‘vanishing’ (Warren 2014). These descriptors point to how, as prosperity has declined and its absence begun to look structural, the middle class has started to take on features associated with the working poor and its associated precarious life chances (Standing 2011). In similar vein, Picketty (2013) argues that growing inequalities undermine the social order. While initial predictions by Thurow (1996, p. 34), in his The Future of Capitalism, that ‘[d]isappointed middle class expectations cause revolutions’ are as yet unresolved; this research is informed by Nichols (1999, p. 100) point that as the middle class has come under new forms of pressure, it has become a fresh object of sociological inquiry. These new pressures can be thought of as producing a ‘squeeze’ (Quart 2018).

Crothers (2014) has analysed the cross-cutting relationships between class stratification and life chances in New Zealand. This advances the more fragmentary work of Wilkes (1994) and Wilkes et al. (1986). In a similar vein, Haddon (2015) has analysed the relationship between class stratification and subjective social location. More structural accounts include Hayes (2005), who has explored the notion of contradictory class location in New Zealand and, more recently (Curtis and Galic 2017) have restated an account wherein a squeezed middle is a corollary of class polarisation. Other accounts emphasise the social-structural and aspirational linkages of a form of downward mobility and contradiction (Cotterell and Von Randow 2014), and emphasise neoliberalism as a driver of decline (Curtis 2016a; Cotterell 2017). In short, there is considerable evidence suggesting that the middle class in New Zealand is being squeezed and this has recently been discussed as part of a broader acknowledgment of the global aspects of precarity (Standing 2016).

Yet there is little research that gives voice to the middle class. The objective of this original research is to explore how middle-class Aucklanders, participants in ‘the middle’, see themselves in terms of being squeezed. It is intended to augment existing structural and statistical accounts of class. The main aim is to facilitate aspects of qualitative research around giving voice to a non-probabilistic selection of participants, exploring the diversity of accounts, as well as enriching existing accounts (Ragin 1994).

Method

Data about the experiences of the middle class was collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with 55 participants in the Auckland area. Each interview lasted approximately one hour. There were 33 female participants (60%), 21 male, and 1 gender fluid. The participants were skewed towards older age groups: 11 people in their 20s and 30s, 15 in their 40s, 7 in their 50s, 15 in their 60s, and 7 in their 70s. All the interviews were conducted by one of the authors of this article (Angela Maynard), and the recruitment of participants was structured around aspects of her social world.

The participants were recruited using snowball sampling in which existing participants recruit future participants (this process was referred to as reverse snowballing in the ethics documentation submitted for this project). Such a non-probabilistic approach is used widely and can facilitate rich accounts of social networks. First, this reflected that the goals of the research are aligned with the cluster of objectives (giving voice, interpreting events, developing theory) typically associated with qualitative research, many variables and inductive approaches in which a variety of non-probabilistic approaches are conventional (Ragin 1994, pp. 32–34).

Second, the start-points of snowball sampling, several direct contacts, were drawn from the life world of one of the authors. It is noted that while these start points were eclectic, they were decidedly non-probabilistic. Thus the application to the University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee noted:

Potential direct contacts will be members of informal groups that the researchers attend, that meet occasionally and are primarily social in character. For example: a women without sisters conversation group, a book club … a walking group, a circle of acquaintances who attend musicals and ballet recitals in Auckland … The initial face-to-face approach will be made around attending these events. Specifically at the end of an event. (Curtis 2016c)

Third, all participants were self-selected in terms of being squeezed. The notion of class position was left ambiguous – as it seemed likely that the use of this terminology might influence self-selection and discussion (Haddon 2015). To this end, the Participant Information Sheet (PIS) did not use the term middle class. In the Project Description and Invitation section of the PIS it was noted that:

What we mean by ‘the squeezed middle’ are those New Zealanders who see themselves as belonging to the middle of economic and social life. They are not at the top, and nor are they at the bottom of economic and social life. They are in the middle, in terms of salaries, wealth and possibly expectations. There are very real concerns, both in New Zealand and internationally, that ‘the middle’ is coming under increasing pressure because of economic and social changes, Government policies, the changing nature of families, etc. There is a wide range of opinions about the squeezed middle, and we are very interested in hearing about them. (Curtis 2016b)

Fourth, the inductive approach was extended into data collection via the semi-structured interview. The interviews did not use a schedule of questions, rather a list of topics. Given that participants were self-selected and that they had been recruited in the milieu of a middle-class lifeworld, the interview process began with, a limited, theoretic sampling in which after an initial restatement of the PIS the participant was invited to comment on the notion of squeeze. Thereafter the researcher used prompts to move the interview as conversation along; versions of: ‘How important is “X” to you?’, where X included issues drawn from the literature (much of which is cited in the introduction to this article). These prompts mentioned: (i) rising house process, (ii) stagnant real wages, (iii) job insecurity, (iv) structural changes in the economy, (v) the devaluing of some occupations, (vi) high levels of student debt, (vii) the reappearance of the intergenerational household living under one roof, (viii) delays in decisions to have children, and (ix) the increasing age of retirement. The interviews were concluded with: (ix) a discussion of the notion of class, (x) a request to speculate on the future, and (xi) details on income, wealth, home ownership, age, marital status, occupation and employment history (Curtis 2016c).

Fifth, the use of semi-structured interviews to collect data wherein predetermined prompts rather than a schedule of questions comprise the research instrument, provide a limited capacity for inductive forms of analysis. The limits relate to the prompts which are drawn from the literature and thus constrain theoretic sampling associated with unstructured interviews and, most coherently, grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967). In this research, the predetermined prompts remained central to a thematic organisation and analysis of the data.

Middle versus middle class

Haddon’s (2015) article on class identification in New Zealand suggests class continues to have saliency in terms of subjective identities, including understandings of the class structure. The notion of a continuing salience of class shaped the semi-structured interviews in two ways. First, the term ‘the middle’ was used in advertising and recruiting, rather than ‘the middle class’. Second, the interviews concluded with a discussion of the notion of class and prospects for the future, if not mentioned earlier by the participant. The use of the more unformulated term, the middle, was intended to minimise the impact of class identification. It was reasoned that one indication of the continuing subjective salience of class might be found in the discourse of participants. That is, the introduction of a class terminology either via advertising or recruitment or early in the semi-structured interviews might alter the everyday nature of the discourse by calling-forth a class narrative. The delayed use of class terminology in the semi-structured interviews was intended to highlight any discursive aspect of the saliency of class.

The potential for a class terminology to shape discussion was not formally tested. However, in its absence participants mirrored the expectations raised by Haddon (2015). 53 of the 55 participants were happy to identify as being middle class, wherein class was understood in terms closely aligned with Weberian conceptions of stratification (ibid). That is, the class was expressly linked with status and power; while the core component of the class was seen as wealth (primarily home ownership) (Winstanley et al. 2002).

Results and discussion

A squeeze confirmed

All but one of the participants agreed that the middle was being squeezed in general (the lone dissenter was in his 20s and the youngest of all the participants), and the majority (33 of 55) felt this personally (had experience of it at an individual level). All the accounts of such personal or individualised squeeze identified neoliberalism or instances of neoliberal policies as its primary cause.

Neoliberalism and critique

So now there’s still the elite upper class people who can pretend neoliberalism is working, that the market is good, that everything is going to be fine and we’ve come out of some kind of economic recession and it’s going to keep improving and don’t worry about house prices – more insulated and protected. And then there’s people who are sleeping in their cars, whose babies are dying. It’s dire shit going on with poor people, and then there’s the middle ground people who might previously have thought that they could get access to that elite group but they are now realising that they can’t and are realising that they might slip down into the lower levels. Ya, I think that’s neoliberalism for sure. And we still have this mythology that individual responsibility is going to save us and that’s clearly not going to happen and not going to work. (No 8, 4/10/16)

I haven’t got a sophisticated argument but it seems to me that everything is driven around the individual, I guess that’s the neoliberal agenda … (No 4, 8/9/16)

The term neoliberalism was not used in advertising and recruitment, nor as a prompt in the semi-structured interviews; however, around a third of the participants used the term as an explanation for the squeezed middle and/or some aspect of decline in New Zealand society (no participants sustained a narrative of social advancement). The research did not attempt to gauge the extent to which the concept as vernacular has analytical merit, for example, it seems likely that middle-class participants would understate how they may have benefited from neoliberalism. The research data does counter the claim by Connell (2010) that neoliberalism constitutes a common sense of our era; the participants’ accounts indicate that while it is a commonly used concept, the policies and practices of neoliberalism were uniformly criticised.

Importance of housing wealth

Apart from one participant in the 50s age group, all of the other participants felt that rising house prices were worrying, contributing to a squeeze. The only individual who stated no concern about the rising prices said that he had not really thought about it.

Participants in their 20s and 30s did not expect to ever own a house in Auckland. None owned homes. The prices of housing (as intending first-time home buyers and current renters) dominated other concerns around difficulties in saving, servicing student loans, and the undervaluation of intended or current professional work. Instead, having a good landlady and rental arrangement was seen as being important. One participant rented a house from her mother and three others had good landladies and expressed being happy to continue renting with no stated desire for home ownership. However, considerable resentment was expressed in that prosperity was out of reach for young people and that (previous) expectations of middle-class people having a good career, house, marriage and children by their 30s were now seemingly out of reach:

The things we used to think of as the ‘kiwi dream’ are not really in the realistic grasp of most middle class people any more. (No 12, 8/11/16)

All the participants in their 40s felt individually squeezed. It was among this group that expressions of resentment peaked, reflecting a longer experience of stymied aspirations in contrast to their parent’s generation and, perhaps, less capacity or flexibility than the younger participants to do much about their decision-making/situation. Housing costs figured prominently (remarkably, 12 of 15 participants in their 40s were still renting); while the three homeowners mentioned the high cost of servicing mortgages. There were some mixed messages in the narrative: anger was expressed about not being able to realise their aspirations, despite being highly educated; and this was coupled with criticism of an aspirational lifestyle as being unsustainable.

While, like the immediately younger group, all participants in their 50s felt that they were individually squeezed, this group was more sanguine than those in their 40s. This reflected mainly that 5 of 7 participants in their 50s were homeowners. With greater resourcing there seemingly came greater empathy and concern for the other. For example, concern and empathy were extended to the effects of neoliberalism on others (in the abstract, those people using food banks), and more concretely around concerns for their children (as thwarted first-time home buyers, or holders of student loans).

Participants in their 60s introduced a new set of concerns, specifically about old age – including concerns about the costs of illness, especially the fear of losing jobs because of illness. These concerns around aging still centred on the issue of housing – that is, retaining home ownership. They reiterated concerns around the high costs of home ownership (13 of 15 participants were homeowners), in particular the high rates in Auckland (this reflected, in part the nil to low levels of mortgage debt in this age group).

This concern was extended into the oldest age group. All the participants in their 70s were homeowners, but 4 (of 7) reported being squeezed, due to it being difficult to live solely on National Superannuation, especially with the high rates in Auckland. One participant found that she and her partner had become ineligible for ‘rates relief’ because they had taken casual work to supplement their National Superannuation. Interestingly, this group, while having the longest experience of socio-economic life before neoliberal policies, expressed regret about their life choices: that is, not saving sufficiently in the past. Most participants expressed regret at how the quality of life for those in the ‘middle’ had deteriorated as a result of the last 30 years of neoliberal economic policies. This sentiment was summed up in the following:

I think there is a undermining of what we in the past have regarded as ‘middle New Zealand’, and I think it is going in the wrong direction frankly. (No 49, 29/8/17)

Precarity of middle-class work

The majority of the participants had experienced job insecurity at some time during their working lives. Nine of 11 people in their 20s and 30s had experienced precarity, 8 of 15 in their 40s, 7 of 7 in their 50s, 5 of 15 in their 60s, and 1 of 7 in the 70s. Participants in the older two age groups also cited friends and relatives who had experienced job insecurity. Participants felt anxious about job security and thought it mainly due to ‘fixed term’ contracts. In this respect, the non-probabilistic aspect of the research, in particular, the non-random selection of participants drawn from the lifeworld of the interviewer was significant, as a number of participants identified the use of fixed-term contracts in various restructurings at the University of Auckland and Auckland Council. Such restructuring had left some participants in a state of permanent insecurity. For example:

During that [restructuring] I’ve gone up, I’ve gone down, I’ve gone to leadership roles, I’ve taken specialist roles, I’ve taken project management roles. At the end of the day the only thing that varies is my location and the amount of money they pay me. (No 43, 13/7/17)

A consequence of precarity is that people are working at jobs below their qualifications in order to have employment:

I was one of 800 who applied for a job answering phones at a school [the job had been advertised on Trade Me]. A bilingual woman who was a lawyer got the job over me. (No 13, 15/11/16)

All the participants believed that real wages had stagnated, except for one in her 30s who had not noticed it in relation to her own income but had noticed it with her friends (No 14, 24/11/16). Most participants felt that prices and costs generally, especially of utilities and housing, had gone steadily upwards leaving incomes behind. Housing costs were cited as the most problematic and had impacted the most on disposable incomes. One individual in his 30s reported that four years ago he could easily live on his income but not any longer as it had not increased with the cost of living (No 19, 29/1/17). Those in their 40s reported similar experiences with one woman saying that she is earning the same salary today in the non-government sector (NGO) sector as she was earning in a government department in Wellington 32 years ago:

The difference between the government sector and the NGO sector is that in the government position you are just paid an awful lot more to do an awful lot less. (No 33, 16/5/17)

Another participant had just returned to the workforce after being a stay at home parent and is now earning about the same income as she did 15 years ago (No 16, 12/12/16). Yet another claimed:

So I’m earning the most I’ve ever earned but I’m not earning a lot more than I was ten years ago. (No 39, 22/6/17)

The need for two-income households was a concern of participants in their 60s. Some participants reported that they do grand-parenting duties to assist their children to participate in the workforce. One participant felt that real wages had in fact decreased with casualisation and job reductions. She had noticed that people who once did administration jobs were now having to work as shop assistants and waiters (No 3, 1/9/16). The need to take a second job or have a business on the side to get out of stagnation was becoming more common. Another person had observed low or no pay increases but managerial staff like CEOs getting huge increases:

Anecdotally I hear [she is a contract worker] of organisations I work with where there are no pay increases year after year, except for the chief executive who is often on a huge fucking salary. (No 28, 4/4/17)

A number of those in their 70s reported difficulties amongst their children as a result of stagnant real wages, and also the struggles they themselves were having attempting to live on National Superannuation. Most were supplementing it in some way, but one participant reported that when his mother and his partner’s parents were still alive they cut out heating and doctor’s visits to make ends meet (No 55, 26/10/17). Another reported that she and her partner had $41,000 a year to live on and a mortgage-free house but found it an enormous struggle (No 20, 7/2/17). Another summed up the squeezed middle succinctly:

So, I think that as a nation we are getting poorer. (No 26, 19/3/17)

A common theme was that the jobs and occupations that people in the middle might aspire to were now devalued. Social workers, community workers and counsellors were cited, by those in their 40s, as being devalued and paid at a lower rate than other supposedly equivalent occupations. The decreasing pay of this type of work was devaluing the jobs:

I think that it’s almost like a lot of jobs are seen as place-keepers to sustain yourself whilst the real economic gains are to be made almost out of some sort of investment. I think work is so different now. (No 15, 28/11/16)

Technology was also cited by this age group, as having an impact and seen as valuing work that was technologically specialised, certainly in terms of remuneration:

I guess in an increasingly technical world, jobs that don’t rely on huge use of technology are probably slowly becoming less valued, (No 16, 12/12/16).

Participants in their 50s identified teaching, nursing and the police as occupations that had been devalued over the last three to four decades. One participant thought that they were still valued by society but not paid enough, whereas rugby players and politicians are not universally respected but are paid well (No 37, 8/6/17).

Those in their 60s and 70s again cited teachers and nurses as being undervalued and underpaid and one participant in his 70s remembered that in the 1960s a teacher’s salary was the equivalent of a parliamentary backbencher (No 55, 26/10/17). Another felt that managers and accountants working in the health system were paid higher salaries for doing lower valued work while those actually caring for the sick were on lower incomes (No 26, 19/3/17). The undervaluing of teachers was a concern to both these older age groups; for example:

When you think about it you know teachers are the foundation of your society in that if you have a good teacher they’re life changing. (No 55, 26/10/17)

University education and student debt

Several participants voiced concern over career-focused moves in university study rather than an education focus; for example:

I always thought people went to university for an education not a vocation. Maybe that’s a very middle class idea. (No 4, 8/9/16)

Similar regrets at the neoliberal shift from acquisition of knowledge to vocational skills were also voiced by participants in their 50s, 60s and 70s:

I mourn the loss of just being able to go and get an education. (No 37, 8/6/17)

All the participants in the three older age groups had free tertiary education after leaving school, although there were people who had acquired loans (now all paid off) whilst up-skilling later in life. There were a variety of concerns from the older participants, including: ex-students leaving the country and never returning because of their debt, debt’s ability to inhibit life experiences, its role in delaying young people leaving home and restraining their spending or saving for the future. It also inhibits people from exploring a range of subjects before deciding on a course that really interests them. Further, there was a common concern that student loans have not only changed the priority of tertiary education towards training for a vocation, but in so doing have generated a situation where many students are having to work at part-time jobs whilst studying. It was felt this inhibits them from participating in student life and in activism and protests, activities that were considered by many participants a part of student life. They are, therefore, missing out on an important life experience and subsequently they miss out on opportunities that were once an accepted part of a way of life for the ‘middle’ in New Zealand society.

Seven of the 11 participants in their 20s and 30s, and 11 of 15 in their 40s were repaying a student debt. Three people in their 50s had children with a student debt. Debts in the range of $50,000 to $70,000 were reported. However, student debt does not cover all the costs of securing a university education. Participants, still in study, combined part-time work with support from their parents: living rent-free and receiving direct financial aid. The participants reported feeling disadvantaged by this debt and, at the same time, they felt the job market was not hospitable to young graduates who are competing with people who have gained experience in the market and who are often the preferred employees by employers:

You’ve got to kind of start at the start [after leaving university] and are almost similar to someone without a degree, and you’re on low wages and struggling and you’re trying to pay off your debt. (No 52, 25/9/17)

A common concern was that having a student debt delays an individual’s ability to become an adult, as it delays the ability to have experienced, buy a house, start a family, which can frequently mean a period of unemployment while a person is attempting to get a job. One participant in his 70s had a son who did not pay off his debt until he was 39 and knew of others who were planning to take them to their graves (No 55, 26/10/17).

Participants in their 40s reported larger debts as they were old enough to have gone through the period [1990s] when interest was charged. One person reported taking out a $10,000 loan during this period but with interest it ended up costing $30,000 (No 15, 28/11/16). It was seen by some as like having an additional tax on your income and a huge barrier to saving for a house and/or retirement. Another reported that her partner was still paying off her loan in her 40s (No 4, 8/9/16). She also had a 16-year-old son who was looking only at certain career paths with a view to earning a high income in order to pay off the student loan quickly. Perhaps most worryingly, one participant felt that a person now needs a Masters degree to compete for jobs, and this means more debt. Her first job paid only $35,000, but she went into it with a $25,000 student debt and whilst in it only paid off $1000 (No 43, 13/7/17).

Inter-generational living as typical

Inter-generational living is almost typical for the participants. Two participants in their 20s and 30s (out of 11) were living inter-generationally, seven (out of 15) in their 40s, four (out of 7) in their 50s, three (out of 15) in their 60s and three (out of 7) in their 70s. Two respondents (of the three) in their 70s had family living in a separate dwelling in the garden, one with a daughter and her child in the separate dwelling and one with his wife lived in the garden dwelling while his daughter, partner and children lived in the main house.

This inter-generation mix reflected more the need for child-rearing assistance and the desire for an extended family. Almost half (7 out of 15) of those in their 40s had family living with them for economic reasons, some have moved in together in a rental home as a way of coping with high rents in Auckland. The main reason for moving back in with parents was to save money. Participants knew of siblings, cousins, and friends all still living with their parents or moving back in for financial reasons. One reported moving in and out of her parents’ house in order to save money, another lived there all the way through university including the post-graduate years. Another reported that most people she knew had received help from their parents during the study period, if not accommodation then financial assistance.

While younger participants spoke positively on the idea of this trend in terms of a sense of community, they found the reality more difficult:

I dream of the day when I can go back to my house after work, shut the door and not have to live in this multi-generational [situation]. (No 25, 13/3/17)

And again:

If people are choosing to live like that to look after a sick person or something like that, that’s one thing, but if you’re forced into that situation you can’t properly spread your wings. And also it’s psychologically taxing and it curtails you. I hate it. (No 13, 15/11/16)

Participants in their 50s had children still living at home and one had a ‘granny flat’ attached to the house. Amongst those in their 60s there was an expectation of children and their families moving in with them, or they themselves moving in with their children. Some were living in larger houses so had room for this possibility and they were aware of it as an increasing trend anecdotally. One, living in South Auckland, reported that most households in her area were inter-generational (No 38, 13/6/17). Such arrangements work very well where the grandparents are helping take care of the grandchildren. And some participants remembered it being prevalent during their childhoods. One reported living with her disabled son and her mother (No 45, 3/8/17).

All those in their 70s had experienced inter-generational living or were currently experiencing it. One had experienced living with older and younger generations. She had her husband’s mother and aunt living with them for 10 years and had had periods where grandchildren had stayed (No 6, 20/9/16). Three participants had daughters living with them. One had had a daughter there until she was well into her twenties (No 26, 19/3/17). Another currently had her daughter living in a ‘granny flat’ in the garden (No 2, 23/8/16). The third had his daughter and two granddaughters living with him and expressed that he enjoyed it (No 50, 7/9/17). Participants in this age group were very aware of grandparents helping to raise grandchildren mostly to support their children’s careers and to help financially; and one participant had lived with his grandmother and parents as a child and now lived with his daughter and her family, however he and his wife were now living in a separate house in the garden (cited above) as his wife and daughter had found it hard to share a kitchen (No 55, 26/10/17).

Gloomy prognosis – worse in Auckland

I grew up very much believing in the welfare state and the need for society as a whole to look after the more vulnerable and I find it extremely upsetting to see those changes. (No 16, 12/12/16)

Participants tended towards a gloomy prognosis. Twenty-nine out of 55 participants had negative expectations of their future; 6 out of 11 in their 20s and 30s, 7 out of 15 in their 40s, 5 out of 7 in their 50s, 9 out of 15 in their 60s, and 2 out of 7 in their 70s. This demonstrated a belief that the squeezed middle was likely to continue, indeed, to worsen. Retirement was seen as providing the potential for some relief. For example:

It was actually a real relief to hit 65 and be on the pension. They leave you alone and you can do some paid work without it being a great drama. They’re off the case really. (No 46, 16/8/17)

However, there was widespread concern about the adequacy of retirement savings, Kiwi Saver and National Superannuation. A number of the younger participants did not have Kiwi Saver. The high cost of renting – in the context of the diminished likelihood for home ownership was perceived as eroding the capacity to save for retirement. There were expectations of high job turnover and the need to clear student loans and mortgages before investing in retirement. Several participants stated that they expected the retirement age to be raised and for National Superannuation to be cut. Several participants thought they may have to work until they died due to a lack of savings. Even those who expected to have a comfortable life in retirement indicated they would need to work a lot longer than their parents did to achieve this.

Retirement was discussed more by the older participants. Those in their 50s seemed the most concerned. The ability to live off National Superannuation was viewed as unlikely so a need for extra income meant working longer or increasing their savings’ plans. One participant was expecting to be made redundant and was job hunting but finding her age a deterrent (No 37, 8/6/17). Paying off the mortgage was considered a high priority. Participants in their 60s also expected to work for longer. Job insecurity was a worry with participants in their 50s and 60s.

The oldest age group introduced issues of ill health. Health was cited as extremely important to those in their 70s and proximity to health facilities was emphasised. Medical insurance was considered beyond the means of many and meant reliance on the public system:

Gave up health insurance because of cost. The interesting part about that has been that we haven’t suffered any problem with that. We have had really good care when we’ve needed doctors or hospital treatment. It was $500 or $600 a month and that was a heck of a lot. (No 20, 7/2/17)

Participants indicated that they thought the squeezed middle was worse in Auckland. Moving out of Auckland figured as about the only coherent response to the squeeze. Sixteen participants were planning to move out of Auckland after retirement because of the high cost of living there. Two were hoping to retire to Samoa as they have landed there and can live more frugally. One of these was in her 40s and the other in her 60s. Many cited the high cost of living in Auckland as a specific worry for the future.

Conclusion

Oh my gosh, look at my salary - $81,000 – and look at what I’ve got to show for it. (No 42, 13/7/17)

While the interviews generated what might be considered a fairly predictable set of responses in terms of the life course, the spread of ages from mid-20s to late 70s provides useful insights into the significance of age in the context of what was overwhelmingly portrayed as decades of worsening socio-economic conditions associated with neoliberalism (Cotterell and Von Randow 2014; Cotterell 2017). In this respect, the semi-structured interviews in their totality provided a snapshot of different age cohorts (Crothers 2014).

Centrality of age

The research confirms the notion of a squeezed middle for the participants based in Auckland (Quart 2018), and a striking feature of that confirmation is the centrality of age in demarcating both resourcing (in particular, homeownership versus renting) and narratives. The significance of age, arguably, reflects two linked aspects which collectively inform perceptions of a squeezed middle: the importance of material circumstance to individual narratives, and; the understanding of a socio-economic transformation in which ‘neoliberalism’ is a watershed after which conditions faced by the middle (and broader society) have worsened (Cotterell 2017). Age then constitutes an important carrier because it maps resourcing normally associated with the middle-class life course, primarily attaining financial stability, and because neoliberalism has disrupted this life course and the expectations associated with it.

Age also shaped narratives, primarily in that its experiential aspect allowed older participants to construct accounts of before and after neoliberalism. The research cannot draw conclusions about the relationship between age and alterity, but there is a suggestion that older participants can imagine an alternative to neoliberalism based on their recollections and experiences.

Governmentality, empathy and resentment

Insofar as the research captures the zeitgeist of the middle, this confirms a neoliberal governmentality wherein a class analysis is interpolated with personal responsibility – and the latter remains paramount. The research supports the contention that while a neoliberal subjectivity prevails in New Zealand, it is coming under increased scrutiny (Kanade and Curtis 2019). There are limits to such scrutiny, for example, the research demonstrates that empathy is associated with social proximity. Participants indicated greatest concern for others in the same situation as them. While older participants presented with broader concerns about the other, this was also proximate – relating to problems confronting a younger generation (for example, increasing costs of houses and student loans) in terms of their adult children or those of their relatives and friends. Interestingly, none of the younger participants expressed concern about older people. Overall, participants adopted and bemoaned individualistic coping strategies – making do with forms of middle-class precarity (Standing 2016), forced intergenerational living, and several stated their intention to leave Auckland.

The semi-structured interviews also illuminated a widespread sense of resentment. Whereas empathy was associated with proximity, resentment was associated with a wider scope. Resentment has two dimensions: – directed against neoliberalism as an historic transformation that was the cause of an increasingly squeezed middle, and; against baby boomers. For example, resentment was voiced that the baby boomers had been able to buy cheap houses for low deposits, often with government assistance. However, while several of the younger participants would one day inherit or borrow from these ‘baby boomers’ – they continued to be resentful, as increasing parental longevity would delay this occurrence. In short, the research demonstrates a gulf in which the older participants have secured much of the financial stability that was once considered normal (at least by them) to the middle-class life course (albeit, they are now facing worsening conditions), while the younger participants do not expect to do so at all. Younger and older are very board categories for analysis, and insofar as the research illuminates a more exact breakpoint, it suggests where neoliberalism transects the life course of ‘Generation X’ (Coupland 1991). Certainly, participants in their 40s and 50s, the middle of ‘the middle’, articulated the most resentment in this research. This patterning of life course is not widely explored in New Zealand, but it is somewhat confirmed by research which identifies people in their 40s and 50s as a troubled age cohort in terms of suicidality (Curtis and Curtis 2011).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by The University of Auckland Faculty Research and Development Fund.