How do I know if I am middle class?
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Anonymous
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woops posted in the wrong list
450k is rich nationally so adjust for COL in the DC area and it's higher than that, i think the rich in the DC area are 500-600k and higher. Which is barely rich. http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/31/news/economy/fiscal-cliff-rich/index.html |
Anonymous
"By contrast, only 0.6% of joint filers, or 965,000 households, have incomes above $500,000, according to the closest estimate the Tax Policy Center has done to the fiscal cliff deal." So, about half a percent of people in this country have that income...but you think anything below that is middle class? This area has completely warped your damn brain |
Anonymous
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Please do not ask me to pity you because you have to "work" in a fancy office taking meetings and typing things and only bring home $500K.
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Anonymous
It's tough around here on 500k, you'll pull out of it soon I hop. |
Anonymous
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I agree with the posters who are suggesting that it's necessary to evaluate SES (which is what I think the OP was referring to - not her ability to know which silver to use at dinner or whether there are cars on blocks in her yard) by at least partially factoring in geography. This is a very expensive area. I moved here from a college town in the Midwest and when we were first looking to buy a house, I was more or less traumatized by the prices. A quarter of a million dollars for a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom house in a further out PG county suburb? At least $1000 in rent for a studio apartment on 16th Street? I was coming from a town where making $23,000 a year working in an office while going to school full time was perfectly fine, because my rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in a nice neighborhood was around $700/month.
I am in my early 30s, college educated and working as a legal secretary at a medium sized firm downtown. My father is a tenured professor at a state school in the Midwest. He has a master's degree and a PhD in his field, as well as tenure, since he's been working at the same place since the late 80s. My salary is about $3k a year less than his. If I was making the same salary at home, I would be considered upper middle class. It would be enough to rent a large house with a yard in a good school district. In DC, what I make is enough that I can afford for my daughter to have her own bedroom, but only living in the semi-transitional neighborhood I live in. We could move into a larger apartment if we lived further out in the suburbs, which would likely also improve school choice, but I would never see her. Here, I do not consider myself to be upper middle class at all. The only reason I consider myself to be in the range of middle class is that last time I checked, I made too much money to qualify for public assistance. I have no idea how people manage to support a family of 4 in this area on $60,000 a year. When I hear people complaining about how they're middle class because they don't have a lot of money due to needing to max out their 401K or renovate their kitchen, I feel a bit ill. When I hear people posting that if you do not have at least a year's salary saved in an emergency account and a life insurance policy, you're an irresponsible adult, I feel a bit ill. If I lost my job tomorrow, I would have about 2 weeks to find another one before I started having to borrow money from my family, which is not an option available to everyone. Please remember when you're complaining about your $500k HHI and how much you have had to work to get there that there are people who make less than 10% of your salary who have worked just as hard. Please also consider that your lawyer's salary likely affords things like health insurance and ability to save for retirement, which is not something that your average retail or childcare job provides. |
Anonymous
So I get to be middle class if we drop one of the incomes? Do you realize that we net the same as a household making $300K a year? |
Anonymous
OMG you are so dumb. No wonder. |
Anonymous
http://www.wtop.com/41/2440968/Taxpayers-subsidizing-luxury-housing-in-Fairfax |
Anonymous
That's not section 8. |
Anonymous
| This is stupid. Why does it matter? Might as well start another thread on DCUM asking how much people make. |
Anonymous
| HHI and class are not the same thing. Has no one read Paul Fussell's book on class in the United States? |
Anonymous
| I feel like what’s considered “middle class” in the dc area means a HHI which would make you appear very rich in most normal parts of America. |
Anonymous
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Income is only one facet of class. Here are ways I identify a middle class person:
- strong emphasis on enforcement of dominant culture (eg, people who become really upset if someone expresses a view like "vaccines are bad"- this is a dead class giveaway) - concern about rules of etiquette, especially table manners - more concerned about class signals than any other class - tend to signal affiliations (bumper stickers that say "Penn State" or "My Child is on the Honor Role at Middling Middle School") - expresses opinions in terms of class ("cruises are for the poors") vs preference ("I havent tried one but I tend to prefer staying at one destination") - implicit statements that suggest other people are financially constrained - fussy about clothing brands or car brands - fly main cabin on vacation - believe that Europeans are sophisticated - explain that they are "more of a Starbucks person" when someone is drinking dunkin donuts coffee - tend to disdain others with similar buying power - and this is an important one, they do not know when they are talking to a rich person |
Anonymous
| Zombie Thread. |
Anonymous
Ha ha ha. |