Lynn C. Spangler writes: “Conceivably Modern Family gets higher ratings because it allows us to fantasize about an upper-middle class or secure middle class lifestyle . . . but The Middle indicates where many people are during these hard economic times” (486).  Spangler also writes:

The Heck family is perhaps like most other families in the United States—spending more money than they have on consumer goods, watching too much television, and struggling to pay their bills and get their children through high school, perhaps college. For the Hecks, jobs are simply a means to an end. They are neither rich nor poor—they are indeed in the middle, a slippery slope where they easily could slide into foreclosure or win the lottery, but they are happy where they are. (486)

Spangler characterizes the Hecks as both “struggling to pay their bills” and “happy where they are.”  In depicting the Hecks as both struggling and happy, does The Middle reinforce existing structures of social inequality?  Based on your limited exposure, do you see the show as ideologically conservative, progressive, or some combination of both?