40% of Americans can't afford an emergency $400 expense ([source](https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/22/pf/emergency-expenses-household-finances/index.html)). But, allegedly only 29% are below middle class ([source](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/06/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/)).

So, assuming some things, ~20% of middle class folks can't afford a $400 emergency. The notion of an American middle class is more about a memory of the past projected into the present than something that exists today.