# middle class (centre)

A range of income and wealth that a collective self reads as its centre, making its boundary wider so that most members read their own income as inside it.

- Computed level: L18 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [collective self](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-collective-self.shared), [boundary](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-boundary.limit), [class](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-class.category), [self-model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-model.reflexive), [in-group](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-in-group.inside), [range](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-range.spatial), [income](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-income.financial), [wealth](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wealth.range), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [centre](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-centre.location), [make](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-make.verb), [wide](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wide.spatial), [member](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-member.social), [inside](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-inside.spatial)

**Through:** A class set by income is used as the group's centre; because members at many values read themselves as inside it, the range stretches and the boundary widens with it.

**Novel properties:**
- a class most members read themselves into
- a centre whose edges move with who claims it

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-middle-class.centre*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-middle-class.centre.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*