Заинтересовалась уровнем жизни среднего класса в 80-е, пока ничего конкретного не нагуглила, но даже те обобщенные описания, которые есть, довольно любопытны.

The middle class were salesmen no matter what their jobs were, in a constant state of status panic, clawing their way up the corporate ladder, subscribing to magazines like the New Yorker to acquire the trappings of the upper class, perpetually terrified of losing their jobs, forced to constantly worry about how they might appear to their superiors — even at home, where they scrutinized their wives and children for fear that an embarrassment might cost them their jobs.