A graduate student in a sociology department is taking a course on the sociology of the economy. In this class, she learns that, even though she always thought of her family as middle class, her parents’ income compared to that of the rest of the country actually qualifies them as upper class. What just happened?

She was able to acquire the information that was statistically backed which shows that he parents were not actually middle class like she has imagined but where upper class.

For example, she might have assumed that since her parent has only one house with one car, they are middle class. But during her sociology class, she was made aware that those whose parents has liquidity value (money) falls within a given range (let say $500, 000 - $1,000,000) or who earns a given range of salary are actually upper class people which happens to be the range her parent falls into.

Explanation: