The programming talent myth

They used to call that "working class" or, less politely, wage slavery. Wikipedia is evidently not a great resource for economic insight. (Who wrote that stuff?) Consider your average programmer's salary less house, insurance, and car payments. The lucky ones might inherit a parent's house. Used cars are a better value nowadays, fortunately.

The US used to have a wide swath of middle class voters. They have been largely wiped out, very deliberately, by policies instituted in the '70s, supported by crushingly effective propaganda methods invented by Edward Bernays in the '20s. In their place are people who think they're middle-class because their parents really were, and because politicians and advertisers tell them they are. But most are one medical emergency away from homelessness.