> It's a psychological motif, even if its not the economic reality. Absolutely, although it does get a bit silly. At 220k income from salary alone, you're squa

> It's a psychological motif, even if its not the economic reality. Absolutely, although it does get a bit silly. At 220k income from salary alone, you're squarely in the top 3% household earners in one of the richest countries on the planet. Hell, take the rental to price ratio ranging from around 6 (Detroit), to 45 (SF), more realistically 16 (Dallas) to New York (35), let's say the average is 25. That $64k annual household income alone would put you in a bracket where 65% of US households earn less than you, without even having to earn a salary. I mean, can you imagine walking into a room of 10 people including yourself, and finding you have a magic necklace (two $800k homes generating rent) that earns you more monthly income than 7 of the other people who likely work quite hard, without barely having to do anything... and on top, if you walk into a room of 100, the income including your actual salaried work earns you more than about 98 of the other people... and still feel'middle' anything? That does sound super silly, until one realizes your point: such people don't mingle deeply in the aforementioned groups of 10 or 100 economically uniformly distributed Americans. They mingle in groups of the top 5%, and feel quite 'middle' there.