The Core

It's the Big Mac Index disparity but just within the US.

http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index

>$39k

I'd say a family of 4 can get by here in northeastern NC on $40k annual family income.  They won't be able to have any real savings or truly disposable income, but they could afford modest food/clothing/shelter/transportation.

With $100k, they could live like barons.  With $200k, they could live like NFFC.

>when you consider taxes

Add 'hidden gov fees' 'hidden gov fees & insurance' to that.

Yeah, we have a fairly high state income tax at 7% 5.5%. Annual property taxes at 1%.  NC & municipal sales taxes:  6.75%–7.5%.. Gasoline tax: 35cents/gal.  But when you dig into other states' total tax & fees, we come out reasonably well.

Out of more than 250 respondents, 81 with incomes between $10,000 to $399,999 said they were "middle class."

I remember my poli sci prof saying that over 90% of Americans think they're middle class. And by classic definitions, it should be something like one standard deviation each side of the median

feel middle class here.

I think people have an idea of what poverty looks like and what wealth looks like, and those ideas are distorted by media depictions. So until they're choosing who in the house eats and who doesn't, they don't feel poor. And until they hire someone to keep the indoor pool clean, they don't feel rich.

These days, what puts you (and I think most the Americans here) in the upper echelons of society are not visible, large-scale consumption items. It's health insurance, breastfeeding, shopping farmer's markets, sending your kids to college and having retirement savings. If you have all those things, you're likely not part of the "middle class"  in America anymore, though it is possible that you still have a middle-class income.

That is very, very roughly the gist of  this book I'm reading currently
The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class (2017)
by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett
http://amzn.to/2F2qXj2

And just recently read most of this:

The Theory of the Leisure Class Kindle Edition (1899)
by Thorstein Veblen 
http://amzn.to/2BMfylC

The latter, by the way, is where the phrase "conspicuous consumption" comes from.

Currid-Haklett pulls together a lot of thoughts I had been having but couldn't quite articulate, such as
- why is wealth associated with working more not less for so many in modern America.
- what is the obsession with food and certain chidl-rearing practices (her chapter on breastfeeding alone is worth the price of the book).