300k is usually considered to be upper middle class, if not upper class. The threshold for being in the top 1% of earners is 420k (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/19/what-you-have-to-earn-to-be-...).

Your right, so go ahead and get a more modest car, save 600 a month, or 7200 a year, That will buy you exactly two weeks of living expenses per year you could save. Do the same with food and save another 1300 a month and you can get up to six week of expenses saved per year. Then if you manage to do that for five years straight you will have the six month cushion that you should have in savings, and this is on a salary that would put you in the top five percent of all earners in the country.

Think about that this is the best case scenario for people making more then 95% of all other Americans, and we are having a discussion if they should be able to drive a Volvo, or eat more then beans and rice. The point your missing is that to even have that discussion you need to be in the top 5th percentile. How are the other 95% of people making ends meet?