My parents were not college educated and for them most part one income and their standard of living was way higher than mine with a BS in EE and 25 years experience. I am not alone.
No I’m living in planet actually understanding what things cost and what a middle class income is. Also living in planet understanding a budget. Most of the reason people “can’t afford” something is because they already blew the money on something else. Folks go out to eat all the time, upgrade their cellphone and tablet and laptop every 18 months, then complain they’re broke. Part of being middle class means knowing how to budget, middle class has enough money to live, but not extravagantly, when they start living extravagantly they start running out of money before they’re supposed to. Any truly middle class person who can only get 3 of these things a year has been blowing a lot of money on other stuff.