[lotsofpulp]

>The median household income in the US in 2019 was $68,000/yr [1]. In the part of the US I am from, and the parts I have lived most of my life, this affords an extremely good quality of life with plenty of room for intelligent financial decisions.

It depends what you define as a good quality of life, but I don't know of anywhere in the US where $68k comes anywhere close to protecting your family from an unexpected medical or legal expense, especially one that causes a disturbance in the income stream. Personally, that disqualifies it as a "good quality of life".

The biggest weakness is once you get into the 50 to 65 year age range. Your odds of health issues or economic conditions decrease your chances of having decent employment, especially with subsidized health insurance. Your insurance premiums also rise to about $22k per year at the silver level, with a $17k per year out of pocket maximum.

And you have no assistance until age 65 when Medicare kicks in. So if you get don't have an employer with deep pockets after age 50, and you get into a healthcare crisis, all of the assets you've saved up are now in play before Medicaid will save you, and now your family is left with not much. This is the reality for many, many Americans at $68k per year, no matter where they are in the US.