What the heck is upper middle class and lower upper class?? What's next? Upper lower middle class? How many bands of affluence do we need to construct in order to properly classify the same rich people?
Most people stratify economic class into three or four bands (sometimes using different names):
1. Upper class/Wealthy/Elite
2. Middle Class
3. Lower Class/Working Class
4. Poor/Working Poor (some people lump this in with #3 above)
The problem is there are huge gradients of affluence even in these individual bands (and obviously more-so the higher you get). Poor would include most unemployed and part-time workers. Working poor would include people in debt living paycheck to paycheck, typically paid hourly, who depend on OT or multiple jobs to pay their bills. Working class is generally more of the same, but able to pay one's bills with a single job, maybe without overtime. Middle class can include everyone from the brand new teacher making $30k a year to the physician making $90k a year but paying $4k/mo in student loans. Upper class typically means people who don't have to work in order to put food on the table but it can also mean people who just have extremely high incomes (think the Fortune 5 EVP or other corporate big shot making $600k but may spend 98% of that every year)
The difference between "upper middle" (90% of the people reading this, excluding students) and "lower upper" (maybe 9% of the people reading this, excluding students) can be hundreds of thousands of dollars in income or millions in total net worth so I think it's a valid distinction.
