[walrus01]

median income for a 50 year old American at 90k is skewed high by a small number of people way above 300-400k.

how many millions of americans have a gross yearly income of maybe 35k?

randomly chosen Montgomery county in Kansas:

The median income for a household in the county was $30,997, and the median income for a family was $38,516. Males had a median income of $29,745 versus $20,179 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,421. About 9.20% of families and 12.60% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.80% of those under age 18 and 10.90% of those age 65 or over.

randomly chosen Benton county in Washington:

The median income for a household in the county was $57,354 and the median income for a family was $69,834. Males had a median income of $57,496 versus $36,575 for females. The per capita income for the county was $27,161. About 9.3% of families and 12.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.3% of those under age 18 and 6.1% of those age 65 or over.[13]

[belltaco]

>median income for a 50 year old American at 90k is skewed high by a small number of people way above 300-400k

Medians don't work that way. Maybe you're thinking of the average.

[robotresearcher]

Median income is not the mean. It is the boundary where 50% make less, 50% more. It’s not skewed by outliers like the mean can be.

The median for 45-55 year olds is much higher than the population overall. It’s the highest of any 10-year cohort, IIRC.

[0x0nyandesu]

Plus high income areas skew up so if you're in some parts of the country a 50k car is on the low end.