Origin
My name is Jon Mikelonis and I am the creator of the www.earningclass.com. The term earning class and the related logotype were created by me shortly after I was interviewed regarding my opinion on the Housing Rescue Plan by my local newspaper, the Reno Gazette-Journal, in February 2009. During this interview I stood strongly against rewarding the bad behavior of those living beyond their means, something the $75 billion plan supported. I felt my stand was a noble one for those making responsible financial decisions while earning an honest and
goal-oriented living.

For the sake of effectively communicating my profile for the readership during my newspaper interview, I reluctantly used the textbook term "middle class" to loosely categorize myself. Being on the lower rungs of the office hierarchy as a part-time graphic designer and a small business entrepreneur, "middle class" seemed an appropriate descriptor at the time. In hindsight however, I felt I lost a perfect opportunity for a "teachable moment" to dispel the overuse and elitist perspectives implied with the terms "working class", "middle class", and even "upper class". The terms themselves infer containment, as if people are not expected to move upward through the ranks of education, occupation, and income, the measures used to determine an American's socioeconomic class.

The use of socieconomic class nomenclature creates a counterproductive division among hard working Americans who really should hold an affinity for one another, regardless of any quantifiable attribute. America has reached a point where the true class divide is between those who believe in responsibly earning the lifestyle their current marketable skills will yield and those who believe they can be loaned, be granted, or steal the lifestyle they want. With this perspective I adopted my own class designation with the earning class name, a contemporary way to engage the gears of American productivity... the remaining population that believes prosperity is to be earned.