National politicians have always been quick to rhapsodize about the middle class—what’s great about it, how to save it, the radical guy in the other party who threatens it. This is partly because the contours of such a social set are stubbornly, though usefully, indistinct. Well over half of Americans describe themselves as either “middle-class” or “upper-middle class” (just 2 percent consider themselves “upper class”), and politicians like to draw the boundaries as broadly as possible, the better to cater to potential voters.

The greater the middle-class monolith, however, the less attention is paid to its divisions and discontents. While it’s common to evoke the generational damage wreaked by the “middle-class squeeze” of rising income inequality, we direct focus away from the specific challenges faced by those barely keeping their heads above water, for whom the specter of deprivation lurks behind every missed paycheck or family illness.

The Brookings Institute’s Hamilton Project released a report Wednesday examining the travails of these Americans, a group it categorizes as the “struggling lower-middle class.” Subsisting on an annual household income of anywhere between $15,000 and $60,000 (100-250 percent of federal poverty standards, depending on size of household), these families have trouble making ends meet, depend heavily on government assistance, and yet still are counted among the country’s much-honored middle class. Here’s a brief look at some of the most disquieting claims advanced in the report.

Struggling families are everywhere

The struggle to stay out of the American underclass may be hidden in a society addicted to conspicuous consumption, but it exists in every community. According to the study, nearly one in three American working-age families with children qualify as struggling lower-middle class. Roughly one half of such families, therefore, are currently defined as poor or living in uncomfortable proximity to poverty.

Broken into income levels, this amounts to 54 percent of the nation’s families living on less than $60,000 per year and fully three quarters of them living on less than $100,000. While few liberals would classify this second sum as the earnings of a “struggling” family, it’s a telling benchmark for some of our policymakers: In last year’s presidential election, voters were presented with a choice between two candidates who claimed to believe that the middle class included any family making less than $200,000. In fact, those high earners represent less than 3 percent of all American families.