My father was a petroleum landman, and based on what I knew about our income growing up (which was not extensive, but I'm not blind), we were dead middle of the band for US household income (like, almost exactly at the median). My mother went to work as soon as my younger sister started kindergarten, and had had side hustles for years before that. So we were definitely middle class, and not in the same way that I'm upper middle class (i.e., I am UMC because I don't have fuck-you money, but I make a lot more than even most UMC people).
And I grew up in Mississippi. So, you know, not exactly a rich area.
However, I don't have any data on what public transit looks like in terms of commuting. So... who knows? But I'm not some scion of a posh suburb who thinks that having gone to public school makes them oh-so-middle-class. And the guy who commuted LCOL to HCOL for a year? He lived with his mother and grandmother in a small house in a rough neighborhood (i.e., you could expect to hear gunfire nightly) growing up. He just had a goal and some luck.
Dead middle-of-the-band for US household income, in Mississippi (particularly historically) makes you the scion of a posh suburb indeed. Note that a common characteristic of people of unusual means relative to their locality is that they insist that they're average; in-and-of-itself, it's not convincing.
I think my point still stands, regardless. No one has yet explained how they know that consultants make up the bulk of supercommuters.
And I grew up in Mississippi. So, you know, not exactly a rich area.
However, I don't have any data on what public transit looks like in terms of commuting. So... who knows? But I'm not some scion of a posh suburb who thinks that having gone to public school makes them oh-so-middle-class. And the guy who commuted LCOL to HCOL for a year? He lived with his mother and grandmother in a small house in a rough neighborhood (i.e., you could expect to hear gunfire nightly) growing up. He just had a goal and some luck.