This is directly related to where you live in the US. I've told this story over and over but I'll do it again: When we lived in San Diego we couldn't make it into the "middle class". We made $80K to $100K a year, spent $2,800 on rent for a crappy apartment, and $3K a month in daycare for our two kids. Right off the bat we were $6K out on just two expenses. That didn't include utilities, car payment, our $800 a month Obamacare bill, groceries, diapers...we were spiraling. We ended up on $300 a month in food stamps, full WIC benefits, an Obama phone, and of course crappy Obamacare. We were both working full time killing ourselves. We also were contending with a mountain of medical debt we incurred from one of my kids being premature and my husband battling cancer. We were sunk. We filled bankruptcy and moved out of commiefornia (BTW, my husband is a native CA - so he was displaced by bad policy that inflated cost of living) Fast forward two years later....my husband still makes $100K. I'm a stay at home mom. We re-established credit and next week are going to sign a contract to build a $300K 4 bedroom home. We also can afford to send our children to private school instead of public and take one nice family vacation a year. His salary didn't change, we just moved to a lower cost of living state. Infact, because of the difference in taxes he no longer has to pay, he gets to keep more of that $100K. You cannot live in a super expensive ziocode and then bitch when you can't keep up. They are complaining but live in Wash. Everyone I knew in CA who didn't have roots in another state moved to Wash. It's becoming CA part 2. They can be as middle class as they want, go move to Montana!