This list is complete BS you certainly do not need to own a home and have a college degree to be middle class. By this definition a journeyman electrician making 150k a year that rents and doesn’t have a degree wouldn’t be considered middle class? That’s just stupid.

There is a reason why poverty is defined as a dollar amount. Because when it comes down to it all that matters is can a person afford to provide for themselves. All this other stuff are just symptoms or contributing factors to get you in or out of poverty they do not constitute a working definition of poverty in any broadly applicable way.