Hi observer, blossom, and everybody else who is disturbed by the “middle-class” discussion,
We can actually all get along. 
I teach at a working-class college within reach of Atlanta, and one of my goals is to understand how college and the class system interact, so I can give my students the best chances. In California, making 150-200k might very well qualify as “middle class.” In Atlanta, it is upper-middle class. I would say that “upper-class” families in ATL could safely be categorized as making 300K upwards. So many people in this country, though, are making 50-120K as a family unit, and this is how I see “middle-class” in regions of the country that are not terribly overpriced and competitive. This is also what surveys of the U.S. say about who the solid “middle class” are. There are many, many poor people who do not make that much. A majority of my college’s students are on Pell grants. Anyway, that’s the statistical truth. I hear it has a liberal bias. 