I fail to see the relevance of how one makes one's money to the class discussion and 88k is an arbitrary number. The classic "American Dream" lifestyle is typi

I fail to see the relevance of how one makes one's money to the class discussion and 88k is an arbitrary number. The classic "American Dream" lifestyle is typically defined as home ownership, two cars in the garage, three squares a day and sufficient disposable income to be able to comfortably afford to raise children and save for retirement. So, assuming this works as a definition of "middle class", anyone not capable of all of the previous due solely to financial constraints is therefore "lower class". Based on my experience, $120k annual household income in a low cost of living area barely squeaks over the bar if you use this metric. $175-$200k annual household income seems more realistic to me given the retirement clause. Where the line gets drawn for "upper class" is harder to define, but I think we can all agree an upper class exists.