I wish we stopped equating too 1% incomes with “the top 1%”. People in the top 1% of wealth are much better off than those in the top 1% of income - at a typical “safe withdrawal” rate and the much lower (and avoidable) marginal capital gains taxes vs income taxes, they can take home almost as much after taxes as a top1%-by-income family, if not more, without doing any work at all.

Wealth is also a much more durable measure than income, as very high incomes for many people don’t happen until mid or late career, or they may be one-offs (like from an IPO).

You can be in the top 1% of CA as eg a dual income family in South Bay both working lowish status roles like “senior/staff engineer” or “line manager”. That’s solidly upper middle class in practice until they accumulate wealth. There’s a world of difference between that and how a family with $15m in assets can live