The Illusion of Middle-Class: How Economic Pressure Is Slowly Erasing It

Growing up, we were taught that society was divided into three economic classes: the rich, the middle-class, and the poor. We did not just learn this in theory, we saw it play out in real life.

Many of us came from middle-class families where our parents couldn’t afford luxuries, but comfortably covered necessities and some wants.

School fees were paid on time, there was food on the table, and occasionally, new clothes for special occasions.

But look around today. Does that middle ground still exist? With inflation eating our currencies alive and the cost of everything skyrocketing, it feels like there are only two categories left: the wealthy, and everyone else hustling to survive.

The middle-class is not just disappearing quietly, it is being squeezed out of existence while we are too busy grinding to notice.

When "Comfortable" Became "Barely Managing"

Remember when our parents' salaries actually meant something? When transport fare was predictable and fuel prices were not changing every other week?

Our parents' generation could afford rent, send multiple kids to decent schools, and still have something left for emergencies. That was middle-class.

Now, you finish university maybe after your parents sold land or borrowed to pay fees, and the job market is either non-existent or offering salaries that can barely cover transport and lunch.

Rent in any decent area costs more than most entry-level jobs pay. A bag of rice is more than half of your wage. The exchange rate is doing whatever it wants.

Your degree doesn't guarantee anything except maybe unemployment with credentials. NYSC allowance can't even sustain you for a month.

You are competing with hundreds of people for jobs that require "5 years experience" for entry-level positions. And when you finally get hired, the salary has not increased since 2020 but everything else has tripled in price.

The Social Media Middle-Class vs. Reality

We are living in an era where people look middle-class but are drowning financially. Instagram and Twitter have created this performance of stability that has nothing to do with actual bank account balances.

Your favorite influencer is posting luxury hotel stays and designer outfits, but won’t tell you it is all debt or sponsorships.

Your coursemate is driving a car probably financed with a loan they are struggling to repay or maybe an illegal enterprise. We are keeping up appearances because nobody wants to look like they are not "making it."

The old middle-class had savings. We have "I'll send it by weekend" as a permanent lifestyle. They could plan for the future.

We are doing gig work, freelancing, betting, forex trading, crypto and probably anything to survive and calling it "multiple streams of income" when really, one stream is not enough to keep us afloat. We have rebranded struggle as hustle culture.

The Generational Wealth Gap Nobody Wants to Discuss

Now, what actually determines your class is what your parents have. If your family owns land or property, you are rich. If they don’t, you are starting from scratch in an economy designed to keep you there.

Your parents could build a house on a civil servant salary. We can't even afford rent in that same neighborhood. They bought land for N50,000 that is now worth millions.

We are spending millions on rent with nothing to show for it. The ladder they climbed has been pulled up, and we are being told to jump higher.

Meanwhile, the children of politicians and businesspeople are set for life before they turn 25. They are managing inherited wealth. The gap between them and us is like a different universe entirely.

Politicians Selling Us the Middle-Class Dream

Every election cycle, politicians promise to "empower the middle-class" and "create opportunities for youth." But who exactly is this middle-class they keep talking about?

The government worker earning N70,000 monthly who can't afford school fees? The graduate doing three freelance jobs to survive?

The label keeps us hoping. If you believe you are middle-class or can become middle-class through hard work, you are less likely to demand real change. You will keep voting for the same recycled politicians promising the same empty dreams. It is a distraction from the fact that the system is designed to keep wealth concentrated at the top.

Source: Google

While we are busy trying to maintain a middle-class identity, our leaders' children are schooling abroad, getting medical treatment in foreign hospitals, and investing our commonwealth in their foreign accounts.

The inequality is generational, and it is getting worse.

The New Reality: Connected or Struggling

Let's be brutally honest about what determines success now. You are either:

Connected: Family wealth, political connections, access to contracts and opportunities through "who you know," the ability to start businesses with family money, studying abroad.

Or struggling: Hustling daily regardless of your degree, dealing with terrible job markets, unable to save because survival costs everything you earn, watching currency devaluation destroy whatever little you manage to keep, planning to "japa" because opportunities feel impossible here.

That comfortable middle ground our parents knew? It is gone. You might have a university degree, speak three languages, have professional skills, and still be unable to afford a one-bedroom apartment.

You might be earning what sounds like good money until you realize it can’t cover basic living expenses for even two weeks.

So What Now?

The middle-class is not coming back through individual hustle alone. This is not about working harder, many of us are already working ourselves to exhaustion.

This is about a system that extracts wealth upward while leaving the rest of us fighting for scraps.

Recognizing this is not giving up, it is seeing clearly. Once you stop pretending everything is fine when it is not, you can stop blaming yourself for a rigged system and start organizing for real change.

The society we were taught to believe in where education and hard work guaranteed stability was already a lie when they sold it to us.

The question is not whether the middle-class still exists. It is whether we are going to keep pretending we are okay while the system continues to fail us, or whether we are ready to demand the future we actually deserve.

Because right now, "middle-class" is just a label we cling to while we are busy surviving.