Are you claiming that 49% of people are upper class, as in earn over $145,000 in states where that's the cutoff such as Maryland and Alaska?

Half the country earning at least $70/hr and employed full time. Really?

Only 9% earn under $40k in those states?

Can you cite something?

I claim that it's more like 7% upper, 49% middle, 44% lower and not a world of $170,000 gas station attendants and $150,000 dishwashers.

You misread the chart. It means the upper class' share of total income increased from 29% to 49%, while the middle class went from making 62% of all income, to 43%.

Those percentages are total income, not population. You've got it completely wrong.

this. here's the graph which clearly labels it as aggregate income. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2015/12/ST_2015-12-09_m...

Looks pretty out of touch with any reality to me...

49% upper class? Where did you get those bogus numbers? The actual numbers given (and even those skewed) are about 15%.

Have you read the article, by any chance?