The scholar Richard Reeves, as detailed in the above piece by the PBS Newshour, describes the various “classes” as defined by wealth.  He also theorizes that it is not the top 1 percent necessarily obstructing the rest of us from accruing some financial stability, but the “upper middle class” group earning $117,000 (the top 20%) or more may be unintentionally keeping the the majority out of the equation.