Today, people who would be in middle class comfort are trying to make middle class wages while driving a pizza delivery route, or pouring coffee at Starbucks. Those are jobs for high-school kids or stay-at-homes looking to get out of the house for a few hours and make a few extra bucks.
In the small town in northern Illinois where I live (population around 45K) there are probably 100 or more people just finishing their evening of delivering dinner right now. I don't care how nice your car is or how many college degrees you have, the quality of your performance is based on, did dinner arrive within a reasonable time frame, did the right order get delivered, and hopefully nobody spit on my dinner. That's what determines the tip.
There is an entire generation of Americans (maybe 2?) who have no idea what middle class is. All they know is that somebody cheated them out of it, and they don't know who to blame,
“All they know is that somebody cheated them out of it, and they don’t know who to blame.”
And yet, they’ll keep voting for the same SOBs who sent the good paying jobs overseas. ;)