See figure 7: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServ...
It's also worth noting that he's writing this from the perspective of a far more materialistic and status-based society than the US.
The author did not grow up in poverty.
India's middle class can typically own property and afford servants, and live a life that is far more pleasant than is available to those in poverty in the US.
As an Indian I can tell you, To give you a true perspective almost every one rich in India apart from Ambanis and Tata(Kind of Rockfellers and Rothschilds of India) think they are from the middle class.
The super poor in India die out of hunger. Farmers commit suicide day in and out. The lower middle class barely gets any education and nearly die fighting for opportunity all their lives. The middle class is a little above that.
I can tell you stories of how difficult and crappy my child hood and teenage here was. And we were considered middle class.
The fact that you can start a company in India, and do it relatively comfortably to have your parents support your through, pay your college fees, have a car, and give you comfortable cozy home to live means you are easily among the rich.
In India middle class is an heavily overloaded terminology.
Read my link - 95% of Indians are poorer than the bottom 5% of Americans. Unless the author defines "middle class" as "top 2%", the fact that he grew up "middle class" is meaningless when comparing his lifestyle to an American one.
A stat to illustrate the point - 1.8% of India (circa 2009) owns a car, likely one that would be too dangerous to sell in the US. For comparison, 25% of American households below the poverty line own 2 cars and 75% own one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_p...
http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf
The bottom 50% of America you described, or even the bottom 5%, also does not go to bed hungry.
In most countries, especially poorer ones, you don't have to own a car to be in the middle class. Neither you have to pay for gas, car itself and parking/garage. You can realistically move by foot and/or mass transit.
Disclaimer: I think I'm in top 5% in my country, probably earn more than USA median and I never had a car.
I'd provide you with more statistics showing how wealthy poor Americans are (http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf), but clearly you aren't going to read any numbers.
So instead, go watch about 4 minutes of Delhi Belly (good movie, BTW, vastly better than typical Bollywood crap) which always confuses first world types:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrJS6R-FT-o
(Sorry, couldn't find the whole scene in one video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3dkCVXcAVg
That's life for middle class professionals. (Admittedly, a group of non-misfits would have filled the buckets.)
They don't drink your juice in the USA?
I will pick middle-class Indian over poor American every day, because: you won't get shot, you won't land in prison, you won't have to work three jobs for funny money, you'll have a real family and your children won't do drugs.
Instead you'll be raking in some respect.
3 middle class professionals (2 in that scene) all sharing a single grungy studio apartment. One of them is unable to wash his butt because none of them remembered to fill buckets of water during the 2-3 hours/day when the water worked.
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about when you suggest the poor American works 3 jobs. He probably works 0 (http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2011.pdf), unlike the Indian who is typically working mon-sat (mon-fri at a good IT company). Crime is a huge problem - just ask any woman of reasonable attractiveness.
As for having a "real family", the poor American can choose to marry a woman of good character before having children. He typically chooses not to.
Look, you can complain about "I can't afford a new iPhone poverty" and "omfg someone with a job makes 8x more than my welfare poverty" within the first world all you want. But don't project these intuitions onto India and other nations suffering from real poverty. It leads you to conclusions that are utterly ridiculous to anyone who knows what they are talking about.
I guess that mainland states' countryside is one thing and urban poverty in large cities is another thing. One more reason to take income rankings with a grain of salt. As a preedictor of lifestyle.
If you have any data at all suggesting the Indian middle class is remotely as wealthy as even poor Americans, feel free to cite it.