U.S. Middle Class nearly gone

[BoFox]

I pretty much agree with all of this.

A family with $70K income can live a decent life. That is a solid middle class income.

I get Bofox's point too though, once you've gone way past the $70K you can't believe people could live on that because in general people spend what they make and to go back to that would seem impossible.

Well, Ben and I are not on the same page where he says, "If you are really good with money, $25K would be plenty for a single person(obviously excluding living in Manhattan/SanFran et al)."

Ok....   PLENTY???  Maybe for the poorest parts of America living with a roommate, or if living with parents and not truly living as an independent single person.

$600-700/mo housing expenses for a decent studio/1 BR apartment in most parts of the USA
$400/mo for food (that's like $12 per day, and that's scraping the barrel with two $1.50 McDoubles for Lunch and Dinner plus drinks)...   scratch that, make it $600/mo for food if one wishes to eat something other than junk crap most days of the week
$300/mo for low-end transportation costs (unless "PLENTY" means driving a new car which would be about $400/mo plus gas and insurance, or well over $600/mo) ---   let's just say $400/mo here if a 5-year old car is good enough.
And then there's utility costs.  Clothing.  Hygiene.  Phone, internet, and maybe cable?  How much is plenty for a single person?  $300-400 for these things?

Forget about saving money for retirement.  Forget about a nice vacation to Las Vegas.  Just lower-middle class is the target here, maybe with a basic Sprint or T-mobile subscription for $50/mo.  It's not uncommon for a lower class American to pay $100/mo for a cell service, making that middle class guy jealous.

Money to buy a laptop/tablet or a PC?  Some movies and games?  A bit of leisure and recreation like going bowling, going to the theater or to a concert...   $100/mo can be kind of low when you think about it, so let's just say $200/mo unless you just want to go home and watch tv everyday..

This all adds up to $2250/mo ($25K/YEAR) and that is just GETTING BY so that you feel like you're living a middle class life, with no savings whatsoever, no health care premium, no investments, no exotic $2000 camping trip or cruise to Cancun/Grand Cayman, etc.. 

Add $5+K/year just for housing expenses in the bigger cities. 

What does "PLENTY" mean?  $10K or $20K overhead for savings, health care premium, being able to make investments, buy a new car, travel somewhere nice once a year?