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Due to the mixture of children and adults and eldert, singles and households, it's impossible to correctly combine stats from multiple sources, or even properly understand a single metric.

$60,000 a year is HOUSEHOLD income. In more than half of households there are at least two earners. This perctange rises when you look at median income households.

The typical median income household is where both parents make around $30k–which is right around minimum wage. If you, as an single individual, are making $60,000 you have about TWICE as much money as the average, middle income American.

I don't think you realize just how poor the average "middle class" person is.

They could be going off of per capita income rather than household income - US per capita income is closer to $32k a year[0], so 60k a year would put you quite high on that distribution.

0. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/SEX255217