The average redditor is probably college aged, or just out of college and planning to make decent money when they graduate. STEM and all. Their scale is messed up. 

After I graduated college I got a job offer for more than my dad makes at 50. Thought I was gonna be loaded. 

Then reality came and I make good money sure but I’m far from loaded. But if I’m making good money, what’s a doctor making? Literally thousands more than me a month. That’s upper middle class? I thought *I* was upper middle class. Is the scale that wide and is my dad that poor? 

Now big wig celebrities and executives incomes seem almost comical to me. 



I guess what I mean by all that is nobody wants to call themselves poor or rich. In the US if you think you’re poor outside of your early 20’s you feel like a failure. Plus you see people doing much worse than you, so you will call yourself middle class to avoid embarrassment. 

But if you’re doing well, you likely live in a nice apartment where you see people driving Porsche’s all day and feel poor. So you say middle class.