What are better terms to use than "middle class"?

There is no doubt that the term "middle class" is used quite differently in America (where about 80% of the population self-describe as "middle class") and in Britain where it carries a cultural understanding, George Orwell proving that it was possible to be a "middle-class" tramp (Down and Out in Paris and London).

And what about that component of the American population who fit the British description of "middle-class" - e.g. who read the New York Times or the Guardian on-line, drink tea with their little fingers extended, take holidays in Europe, aspire to Ivy League education, watch foreign films with sub-titles, and tune in to the public broadcasting networks?

What are they called?

And how is the French word bourgeois used? Is that of relevance?

Everyone thinking of themselves as "middle-class" is part of the core American egalitarian mythology. It is part of a largely explicit rejection of the classism of British society, dating back to the country's birth. No one here (with a few notable exceptions) wants to think of themselves either as poor or as rich, despite the ever-increasing income gap, and the disappearance of the actual middle class. Being middle class is associated with salt-of-the-earth authenticity, but as combined with pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps industriousness. Here, therefore, the poor are called "the lower middle-class," the rich are the "upper middle-class," and those who actually are middle class are called "solidly middle-class."

And what of those who "who read the New York Times or the Guardian on-line, drink tea with their little fingers extended, take holidays in Europe, aspire to Ivy League education, watch foreign films with sub-titles, and tune in to the public broadcasting networks"? The current term of art is "the liberal elite[s]," reflecting how this group has been successfully cast as the villains in a politicized culture war.

The French term bourgeois is almost never used, but, as mentioned by Amy and others, its AAVE (African-American Vernacular English) derivative "bougie" has recently entered mainstream American usage. "Bougie" is a mildly disparaging slang term that mockingly describes people who put on fancy airs. It was traditionally directed internally within the black community against those college-educated middle- and upper-class black Americans who were seen as overzealously adopting exaggeratedly affected mannerisms as a way of separating themselves from the larger black community. As contrasted with the affirmative Britishism "posh," it demonstrates the deep distaste of Americans for visibly classist attitudes.