The rich, super rich, wealthy, super wealthy etc…are all names spouted about. Like upper, middle and lower classes. These have no standards to compare them towards. I think it would be more useful to compare standards of living, with a historical perspective to understand where we’ve been as a nation, where we are now and where we’re going. I suspect that we’ve peaked-out from a standard of living measure in the last couple of decades and are now headed downward.
If we were to use median house hold income as a standard…it’s change in the last 20 years has been tiny compared to the real rise in the cost of living and inflation in general. At around $50K per year, it barely covers rent, food and health care after taxes. I would say that the median HH income is now a living wage, and that’s it.

Is a living wage equal to being middle class? Maybe, but if the top 10% of incomes are $100K or more, then I would say that maybe 15% of the country are not living from paycheck to paycheck.