Australia's image of itself has always been somewhat out of step with reality. For generations we saw ourselves as a nation of apple-cheeked hard workers carving out a life in a desert on the edge of the world, despite more than two-thirds of the population living in cities larger than most US capitals. But a recent report stating 93 percent of the population view themselves as middle class suggests that the country's greatest delusion might not be of folky, billy tea sipping grandeur, but of suburban mediocrity instead.The appeal of being middle class is understandable. It's the sweet spot where living the Australian Dream intersects with the idea of the Aussie battler. But the reality is that in 2014 the average full-time wage in Australia was an impressive $75,603 a year. To compare, the average wage in the UK is $51, 309, the US is $54,250. Neighbouring New Zealand comes in at a comparatively meagre $41,472.Working with averages obviously has its problems, but looking at Australia's disposable income rates, things really are pretty healthy. Only 18 percent of families have disposable incomes of less than $45,000, although the numbers are less favourable for single parent households. But as our national identity has shifted from working to middle class, the reality is that even when compared to other western countries, our lifestyles are well above average, often surpassing the traditional interpretation of the phrase.Clive Hamilton is a professor of public ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University. He says the major issue we have with discussing our own class is that the concept itself is increasingly transient. "'Middle class' originally meant being both financially secure and culturally superior to the working class," he says. "Now these two dimensions have become blurred. So we have phrases like 'genteel poverty', where the 'genteel' means cultivated and educated, and 'cashed-up bogans'.""This is all in part due to the decline of a distinctive working class culture with which people could identify," he says, explaining our current obsession with the middle. "It has all become washed out through television and commercial culture." Movies and TV have presented the somewhat drab urban middle as normal, expected, and desired; faced with this Australia seems unable to accept the reality of our own affluence or let it penetrate our national identity. Our reality is often much more favourable to that of the families we see on American and UK TV, but we don't want to admit it.The reality is although a middle class that includes 93 percent of the population seems exceedingly high, and arguably impossible, Australians are doing better than ever. But despite this all we want is to be part of the invisible middle and shy away from the reality that like it or not, we're some of the wealthiest people on earth. The question then becomes not one of whether or not that high figure is realistic, but rather why we're so reluctant to accept our role as an increasingly wealthy bourgeois nation; why do we insist on being average?Perhaps Clive's answer is the simplest and most apt, "Australians are some of the most conformist people in the world, so we don't want to stick out as different."Follow Wendy on Twitter: @WendyWends
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