In the past, a wage job like trucking wasn't a road to the middle class. It was the middle class. I grew up in what was supposedly a middle class neighborhood -- little tract houses, families with one wage earner, and one stay-at-home parent. A lot of the adults worked in the car plants, steel mill, machine shops, or other jobs that didn't require college education. Among those with college degrees, many didn't earn substantially more than the wage workers, e.g., school teachers, nurses, etc.