$150k is only middle class in NYC in the weakest possible sense of the phrase “middle class”. Even if we restrict to manhattan, $150k puts you in the top ~20% of household income (which often includes two wage-earners). Median income in Manhattan is right around $70k. I know that nearly everyone in America (except maybe for Bill Gates) believes that they are middle class, but at some stage one needs to accept that if you make whole-number multiples above the median wage, you are at the very least “upper middle class” or “well off”. To pretend otherwise is frankly a bit insulting to the actual middle class.

Yes, there are people making vastly more than $150k, but that doesn’t change the fact that it puts one solidly in the upper quartile.