What does it mean to be ‘middle class’ in 2024?

The idea of the middle class may seem mythical and out of reach for more Americans. We talked to people across the country to hear their experiences. When I was a kid, $100,000 sounded like an impossibly large sum of money. Even when I started working at my first professional job with an entry-level salary of $32,000, I thought that making $100,000 would allow one to be comfortably upper-middle class. I’m sure I’m not alone; a “six-figure salary” was, for a long time, shorthand for a...