Recently, the news media seems to have developed a weird fetish for the petit bourgeoisie. The U.S. is highly atypical in how we treat the upper middle class.<p>In Germany, for example, a two-income couple making 84,000 Euro ($100,000) in Bavaria nets 57% of their income: <a href="https://www.icalculator.info/germany.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.icalculator.info/germany.html</a>. In Maryland, a relatively high-tax state, they net 76% of their income. And that doesn't adjust for the additional upper middle class tax benefits like the mortgage interest deduction, which don't exist in Germany, which would take the net income over 80% on a typical house.<p>A couple earning 840,000 Euro ($1 million), in contrast, net 55% of their income, barely different from the previous example. In Maryland, they net 54%, less than in Germany! In contrast, actual corporate tax rates in Germany are about 15.5%, versus 18.5% in the U.S. (and Germany is quite high compared to say Canada, at 8.5% or France, at 11.2%).<p>I live on the east coast, but about an hour east of D.C. Around here, you can live very comfortably on $100,000/year. Certainly, more comfortably (at least, materially) than you typical middle class German family. The only reason the situation gets worse as you get closer to D.C. is expensive housing and worse schools, which are problems that are entirely inflicted by the middle class on itself (through anti-development and pro-segregation policies).