This kind of lifestyle is possible anywhere with high inequality. All you need is for other people to be willing to work for so little that you can pay them to do stuff you don't want to do. Attaining this lifestyle can often be easier in developing countries than it is in developed countries because inequality is often higher in developing countries.

Not anymore! Ever since we tricked millennials into thinking that "flexibility" and "side hustle" is more important than a steady paycheck and benefits, you too can pay people a non-living wage to deliver your takeout!

No one tricked anyone. Automation, globalization, increased efficiency, and doubling of the labor supply by adding women reduced the price of labor, aka wages and all the gains went to capital owners.

Are you saying we should remove women from the workforce?!!

No, I'm just stating reasons for why individuals are finding it more difficult to raise a family on one income.

Show me the jobs with steady paychecks and benefits they're passing over for "flexibility."

My original comment was a bit of satire aimed at the so-called gig economy and the companies that make money by exploiting contract workers through marketing themselves as hipster cool, e.g. uber, postmates, taskrabbit, etc.

Actual middle class life: eat out once a week, if that. At least 50% manual labor. Maybe cable TV and a Netflix account. Someone in the house does laundry. Handyman services are not outsourced unless they require a professional. Used everything. Definitely no budget for luxury subscription services.

Typical middle class life is nothing like what I mentioned above. Nothing. Anyone who's ever been middle class or known someone who was actually middle class—that is something with a median income—would know this.

There is this tendency to use relevancy to say to somehow equate someone in the top 10% with the middle class. It's just bullshit.