I have a degree and I have never made 85k in my life. I never get a yearly vacation either, I hate to break it to whoever this person is but this is not “middle class” in 2026. This is upper middle class at least.
I have degrees, make $110k before taxes and overtime. Our household makes over $200k before taxes, with 2 kids. We are upper middle class, i think. $85k, single person household is firmly middle class.
We do 1-2 large vacations with a dozen camp trips yearly. Our vehicles average age is also 20 years old and our house is way below what we could afford, so that may be part of our financial freedom.
My spouse and I have three degrees between the two of us and neither of us has ever made that much. At this point we will likely be too old for kids before we can afford them.
I got lucky and ended up at a job with almost infinite growth. Masters in mechE and I do controls, scada, and inventory management stuff. My wife is a high paid dental assistant.
My job is imposter syndrome defined. I enter a factory and I’m the most important person in the building, but I feel like I barely understand what I’m doing. Wish I could give career advice besides ‘be the expert in the room’. Which I know cant be everyone.
You are going to need to take that up with Wikipedia:
Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation’s income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%.
The classic definition of middle class was, as far as I learned it, making enough money that you could afford to pay for your family’s expenses without needing your wife to also work.
This came out of the poor working conditions in factories in the 1800s, where people often were hurt, maimed, or even killed (compared to today, this was quite common). If you made enough money that only one family member had to suffer (at this time it was always the husband), that was the bare minimum to be considered middle class. This was regardless of income, it was more about what you could afford.
Prior to this, I’m not sure middle class was really much of a concept. Most groups were separated by trade and upbringing, and pretty much overall separating the low class from artisans, merchants, nobility, and royalty, with no real middle class afaik. It was, for example, quite common for artisan families to all work together
Edit: i feel compelled to share that i studied history for my degree, and i am sharing one of the definitions i was taught.
Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation’s income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%.
No we were talking about your understanding of what middle class means but if you are going to to be pedantic:
The modern usage of the term “middle-class”, however, dates to the 1913 UK Registrar-General’s report, in which the statistician T. H. C. Stevensonidentified the middle class as those falling between the upper-class and the working-class.[15] The middle class includes: professionals, managers, and senior civil servants. The chief defining characteristic of membership in the middle-class is control of significant human capital while still being under the dominion of the elite upper class, who control much of the financial and legal capital in the world.
I’m not sure where the combativeness is coming from. I came in to share my understanding of the origin of the concept of middle class. I was not intending on being pedantic.
There’s no need to aggressively copy and paste a few Wikipedia articles and pretend to be an expert
I find it very weird that you think I’m pretending to be an expert when I am going by what other people have written and you are going by “your understanding” and feel they are equivalent. The combativeness is coming from the pedantry, once again on this site I shared a personal anecdote and now I have multiple people taking me to task about my understanding of my life based on knowing the equivalent of a tweet about me.
I wouldn’t put too much stock into the actual numbers. Even in just the US, the same middle class lifestyle might be $50k in one location and $200k in another.
Case in point, I live in a comfortable single-bedroom apartment in a low crime rate area for $650 a month. OP’s figure is almost triple that.
Bro, YOU’RE being robbed. If you spent less time trying to act like this is some pie-in-the-sky dream you’d have more energy to fight for yourself and others.
I have a degree and I have never made 85k in my life. I never get a yearly vacation either, I hate to break it to whoever this person is but this is not “middle class” in 2026. This is upper middle class at least.
There is no middle class.
You either work to live or you own the means.
You’ve just been lied to, or so beaten down that your expectarions for middle class have declined.
The OP’s math should be middle class.
I have degrees, make $110k before taxes and overtime. Our household makes over $200k before taxes, with 2 kids. We are upper middle class, i think. $85k, single person household is firmly middle class.
We do 1-2 large vacations with a dozen camp trips yearly. Our vehicles average age is also 20 years old and our house is way below what we could afford, so that may be part of our financial freedom.
My spouse and I have three degrees between the two of us and neither of us has ever made that much. At this point we will likely be too old for kids before we can afford them.
I got lucky and ended up at a job with almost infinite growth. Masters in mechE and I do controls, scada, and inventory management stuff. My wife is a high paid dental assistant.
My job is imposter syndrome defined. I enter a factory and I’m the most important person in the building, but I feel like I barely understand what I’m doing. Wish I could give career advice besides ‘be the expert in the room’. Which I know cant be everyone.
sounds more like you’re not middle class if you don’t have income for discretionary spending
that’s, like, the definition of middle class
By the classic definition I am middle class by virtue of having a degree and not being in a blue collar job.
We understand the usage and meaning of the term middle class VERY differently
You are going to need to take that up with Wikipedia:
The classic definition of middle class was, as far as I learned it, making enough money that you could afford to pay for your family’s expenses without needing your wife to also work.
This came out of the poor working conditions in factories in the 1800s, where people often were hurt, maimed, or even killed (compared to today, this was quite common). If you made enough money that only one family member had to suffer (at this time it was always the husband), that was the bare minimum to be considered middle class. This was regardless of income, it was more about what you could afford.
Prior to this, I’m not sure middle class was really much of a concept. Most groups were separated by trade and upbringing, and pretty much overall separating the low class from artisans, merchants, nobility, and royalty, with no real middle class afaik. It was, for example, quite common for artisan families to all work together
Edit: i feel compelled to share that i studied history for my degree, and i am sharing one of the definitions i was taught.
From Wikipedia.
I thought we were talking classical definitions, not the definition/s currently considered common according to Wikipedia.
I had no intention of declaring your personal financial situation. I was trying to provide historical context for the term (as far as I know).
No we were talking about your understanding of what middle class means but if you are going to to be pedantic:
I’m not sure where the combativeness is coming from. I came in to share my understanding of the origin of the concept of middle class. I was not intending on being pedantic.
There’s no need to aggressively copy and paste a few Wikipedia articles and pretend to be an expert
I find it very weird that you think I’m pretending to be an expert when I am going by what other people have written and you are going by “your understanding” and feel they are equivalent. The combativeness is coming from the pedantry, once again on this site I shared a personal anecdote and now I have multiple people taking me to task about my understanding of my life based on knowing the equivalent of a tweet about me.
I wouldn’t put too much stock into the actual numbers. Even in just the US, the same middle class lifestyle might be $50k in one location and $200k in another.
Case in point, I live in a comfortable single-bedroom apartment in a low crime rate area for $650 a month. OP’s figure is almost triple that.
Bro, YOU’RE being robbed. If you spent less time trying to act like this is some pie-in-the-sky dream you’d have more energy to fight for yourself and others.