This could have been funny. It’s not.

It’s not going to kill me, but my system treats turmeric (in high enough quantities) like food poisoning. This is too bad, because I actually liked Indian food the few times I’ve tried it. The worst part is that it seems to be randomly used in a number of non-European dishes (at least here in NY) so I always look like…

“Equally important” is also a ranking system.

If this were a question about the worst fans...

If this were a question about the worst fans...

You clearly didn’t watch the last decade, because it was really good for a really long time, and it’s finding it’s footing again after the cast exodus a few years ago.

More, more, more!!!

For the Mississippi person? Probably. But you set a threshold that is kind of close to one of the 50 states, ignoring the rest. I'm not even sure what your point is. I'm saying that the middle class is the class in the middle. Why is this even an argument?

Yeah, that's more than your threshold.

Mississippi's middle class threshold is higher than $25K. See chart. And for a family of four, this is still above the actual poverty rate.

There is no state on this list where $25K is considered middle class.

If you think this is poor, then I don't think you know what poor actually looks like.

I want to define middle class as the class in the middle.

That literally makes no sense.

I meant vacations have gotten more profligate, not that they didn't exist.

Reading the comments, I think that the main issue here is relative income, not absolute income. A family in the 1950's would think that our basic expectations are extremely profligate. Aside from the technological advances that have improved our lives, that was a period where parents didn't expect their kids to go to…

Eating out and vacations were never a big part of being middle class. Remember your parents loading you in the car for a road trip for vacation? Why do you think that was?

Since this is a band surrounding to the median, I assume some went up and some went down...

Do you actually live in Michigan?

How many times have you eaten out this month? I'm including lunch. How many times have you gone out with friends? What type of clothes do you own?

Exactly.