ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what is relevant and significant is that the Malaysian middle class is recognised as being part and parcel of this historic global middle-class expansion and is seen as a potential market for the products of multinational corporations. It discusses the financial strength of the middle class by examining their income, followed by a discussion of middle-class lifestyles and social reproduction in the face of the rising cost of living and household debts, and the implications of these. A major concern among the middle and lower classes in Malaysia is the rising cost of living, as seen in rising prices of food items, housing, fuel, motor vehicles and other durables as well as education and healthcare. Being salaried and highly dependent on their take-home pay, members of the middle class find that prices of commodities especially houses and other types of property, cars have increased manifold while wages have not been able to keep pace with price increases.
