[cmurf]

Middle class definitions vary but one of the easier to remember metrics is between 2/3rds and 2x the national median per capita gross income. (Tax burden, geography, number of dependents, all skew this simplistic measure.)

I'd like to agree with the vacation value, but I don't know any Americans other than myself taking 30 days of vacation a year. The very idea of 30 days vacation makes my friends panic, what would they do?!

Also, poor diet is related to poverty due mainly to bad nutritional education and bad habits learned at home, not affordability. Processed foods with a lot of sugar, salt, MSG added, manipulate the brain into wanting disproportionately more of these foods, which are primarily empty calories.