This is nice but neither refutes nor supports anything written.
>
>> Since more than 20% of the people in this income bracket self report they
>> live paycheck to paycheck, which certainly implies very low savings, 80%
>> seems incredibly unlikely.
>>
>
> Impossible does not follow from uncommon. Lifestyles have a way of
> expanding to match (and often exceed) incomes, but that's a choice,
> consciously made or not.
Choice is a loaded term here. What they "choose" is irrelevant to the fact that if over 20% of the persons in this income bracket claim to live paycheck to paycheck then imagining 80% could also have substantial savings of $100,000 or more is not warranted. I have no idea why you wrote "Impossible does not follow from uncommon." since no one equated the two or claimed one followed the other.
Anyway this topic is dead unless you want to post some actual numbers otherwise enjoy your belief that it is not uncommon for construction workers (whose median incomes are less that the median for the population as a whole) to have savings of $100,000 (more than ~80% of the population enjoys in nonresidential net worth). Don't be too disappointed if many people don't join you in that belief since what little data has been posted here makes that claim seem exceedingly unlikely.
John Thornton