Comment by nickforr

I guess traditionally ‘middle class’ referred to the type of occupation (e.g. non-manual) which was typically associated with being better off.

But it’s not obvious that the standard of living associated with being better off would ever have been near the 90th, let alone 90th percentile of salaries?

Not convinced that sending children to private school would ever have been seen as a ‘lower middle class’ expectation.

But I’m also not convinced that the markers you describe are not available to someone at the 75th percentile of income, say, let alone to people at the 95th percentile. Now the luxuriousness of those markers may not be at the level marketed in glossy brochures etc but isn’t that an issue with unrealistic expectations?