[VLM]

"living paycheck to paycheck is now a commonplace middle-class experience"

Gaslighting. They're in the poverty class but that sounds bad to people propagandized to believe they're middle class. You're not poor, you're just a temporarily inconvenienced millionaire and you should base all your political decisions and worldview on that rather peculiar belief.

They're middle class, the same way I'm upper class nobility because I was awarded a college degree complete with a title of "Bachelor of CS". Some guys are titled "Duke of York" some guys are titled "Bachelor of Computer Science" no big difference. I hold a title to property, sure its only an acre of suburb land not a hundred thousand acre barony, but whatevs, I'm practically landed nobility. Only people with a title as distinguished as mine are allowed to hold corporate positions such as mine, we can't have a mere untitled commoner writing programs now can we? Or would you prefer to hear a nice rant on who is the real nobility of the glorious and ancient title of "engineer" and who is a mere pretender to the throne?

USA is full of gaslighting top to bottom.

[coolgeek]

> They're middle class, the same way I'm upper class nobility because I was awarded a college degree complete with a title of "Bachelor of CS"

I have a very hard time believing that anybody believes this

[VLM]

Talk to some engineers from a state country or culture that Engineer a title not a verb. They'll completely flip out at someone calling themselves an engineer without the royal title having been granted, merely because they're doing engineering (as a verb). Also some HR personnel outside tech are incredibly and stereotypically classist with respect to degrees being necessary for hiring. There's the attitude from K12 education system and most who believe themselves middle class about any career path not involving a college degree "Our kind don't become carpenters, can't you get a degree in wood-art or business and then build things?"