Your parents, lower middle class in the 80s, could afford a washing machine that lasts 40 years.
You, lower middle class in the 2020s, can afford with the same resources a washing machine that lasts 5 years and is no more effective than your parents' (but has an app).
In the sense of the parent comment, you are fortunate that the magic of capitalism currently produces such cheap washing machines that even people as poor as you can afford them. But from another angle, the purchasing power of the lower middle class has sunk over time, and quality has degraded to match because durable products have now become "outside the grasp of most Americans".
It lasted 40 years because when it broke they called the repairman. Now when stuff breaks people just buy a new one and complain that it doesn’t last as long.
The repairman charges $150 labor and offers to fix it by replacing a single part that costs half the purchase price of the machine. Seems likely you'd be better off buying the new machine.
You, lower middle class in the 2020s, can afford with the same resources a washing machine that lasts 5 years and is no more effective than your parents' (but has an app).
In the sense of the parent comment, you are fortunate that the magic of capitalism currently produces such cheap washing machines that even people as poor as you can afford them. But from another angle, the purchasing power of the lower middle class has sunk over time, and quality has degraded to match because durable products have now become "outside the grasp of most Americans".