Middle Class and Ideology

Talking about the growth of the Latin American middle class is a thing these days. The Pew Research Center takes a look and yields a conclusion that defies ideology. The country that gained the most from 2001-2011 is Argentina. In the top 10 we also have Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico and Chile.

This is common, incidentally. I've written tons of posts about economic growth, commodities, trade, poverty, you name it. Very rarely does the ideology of the government matter nearly as much (either positively or negatively) as people claim.

With regard to the middle class more specifically, the problem with this data is that it's four years old. I'd figure Argentina is holding steady but post-Chávez Venezuela is likely a different story.