Can we stop referring to households making $200 or 300K a year as "middle class"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday I visited a client at their home. A mom and 3 kids. They had a loaf of bread and a can of soup left to eat. They had no toilet paper and were using napkins. This argument is silly. Appreciate what you have....if you are on dcum, guaranteed the vast majority have less than you.

What choices led to this? Very sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my HHI is about $500K. I consider myself on the upper end of middle class, but certainly nowhere close to upper class. I drive 10+ year old cars, agonize over repair bills, give my wife a hard time for ordering a $6.00 home video rental tonight, etc.

You will actually be wealthy someday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday I visited a client at their home. A mom and 3 kids. They had a loaf of bread and a can of soup left to eat. They had no toilet paper and were using napkins. This argument is silly. Appreciate what you have....if you are on dcum, guaranteed the vast majority have less than you.

What choices led to this? Very sad.

Cycle of poverty, mental health issues, medical issues, absentee father, limited education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday I visited a client at their home. A mom and 3 kids. They had a loaf of bread and a can of soup left to eat. They had no toilet paper and were using napkins. This argument is silly. Appreciate what you have....if you are on dcum, guaranteed the vast majority have less than you.

What choices led to this? Very sad.

Cycle of poverty, mental health issues, medical issues, absentee father, limited education.

Very sad. What jobs is she working? Hopefully at least 2, if not 3, to support her kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my HHI is about $500K. I consider myself on the upper end of middle class, but certainly nowhere close to upper class. I drive 10+ year old cars, agonize over repair bills, give my wife a hard time for ordering a $6.00 home video rental tonight, etc.

I seriously pity you. Your extreme frugality is pathetic.

eh, I live paycheck to paycheck because I have a 15 year mortgage and I invest in a lot of conservative real estate deals. Sorry I don't blow money on depreciating assets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday I visited a client at their home. A mom and 3 kids. They had a loaf of bread and a can of soup left to eat. They had no toilet paper and were using napkins. This argument is silly. Appreciate what you have....if you are on dcum, guaranteed the vast majority have less than you.

What choices led to this? Very sad.

Trickle down economics, allowing the creation of a two tiered school system that creates and reinforces huge educational inequalities, a poorly funded mental health system . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday I visited a client at their home. A mom and 3 kids. They had a loaf of bread and a can of soup left to eat. They had no toilet paper and were using napkins. This argument is silly. Appreciate what you have....if you are on dcum, guaranteed the vast majority have less than you.

What choices led to this? Very sad.

Trickle down economics, allowing the creation of a two tiered school system that creates and reinforces huge educational inequalities, a poorly funded mental health system . . .

my guess is the PP was referring to the choices made by the mom. did she marry the father of the 3 kids? did she graduate from high school? has she acquired any marketable skills?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday I visited a client at their home. A mom and 3 kids. They had a loaf of bread and a can of soup left to eat. They had no toilet paper and were using napkins. This argument is silly. Appreciate what you have....if you are on dcum, guaranteed the vast majority have less than you.

What choices led to this? Very sad.

Trickle down economics, allowing the creation of a two tiered school system that creates and reinforces huge educational inequalities, a poorly funded mental health system . . .

Blamw everyone but the mom and absent dad?

Very liberal of you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently you lose common sense for every 50k increase. 200k is not middle class in any US neighborhood.

We make 290 k in Silver Spring. In some ways we feel rich, especially bc we see so many people who have so much less. But we still can't afford fancy cars or vacations. We also don't think we can afford a fancier neighborhood. We think we are upper middle class.

We're in SS too and have a similar income - median household income in our area is a little over $100K. We had enough money to send our children to LACs without financial aids or student loans, and have taken wonderful trips. We live within our means, paid off our mortgage years ago and have no debt. However this is a wealthy area and this skews your perspective. We probably could have afforded to have moved into Bethesda, Chevy Chase or Potomac at some point, but we were happy where we are and we didn't want our children to grow up in a snobby area and to live in an area with a more diverse mix of people. We consider ourselves very fortunate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, in NW DC it is middle class. That's reality.

You're deluded.

Not really. I'm in a small apt in NW DC, no debt, family of 3 living on $160 and we can't even afford a car. $40k wouldn't hurl us into the upper class.

I call bullshit. I owned a home and a car with a family of three in NW DC making about $140K. AND we had student loan debt. AND we have fully funded 401Ks. AND we took a vacation every year. Get a financial advisor...you obviously can't manage money.

NP here, you either had no childcare costs or did this in 1995.

Another NP. When was this, $140K poster?

not pp, but we make just under this now and own a new DC home bought during the bubble, fully fund 2 IRAS and 1 401k, have some student loan debt, one inexpensive car and we pay for private. the big vacations are not every year, but we make it work. family of 3.

[Anonymous]

^NW, not new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my HHI is about $500K. I consider myself on the upper end of middle class, but certainly nowhere close to upper class. I drive 10+ year old cars, agonize over repair bills, give my wife a hard time for ordering a $6.00 home video rental tonight, etc.

You will actually be wealthy someday.

PP w the $500k salary,
What is your net worth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my HHI is about $500K. I consider myself on the upper end of middle class, but certainly nowhere close to upper class. I drive 10+ year old cars, agonize over repair bills, give my wife a hard time for ordering a $6.00 home video rental tonight, etc.

I seriously pity you. Your extreme frugality is pathetic.

eh, I live paycheck to paycheck because I have a 15 year mortgage and I invest in a lot of conservative real estate deals. Sorry I don't blow money on depreciating assets.

You're a sad person. Truly.

[Anonymous]

Make $335K and we are definitely upper middle class.

We own a million dollar home, vacation in Europe yearly, save more per year than the average American makes in a year.

[Anonymous]

Do we talk about vacationing in Europe as a big deal because of the cost? Can't we just say "we spend a lot on vacations' rather than calling out Europe as if it separates us?


We take multiple vacations a year but I have no desire to vacation in Europe. If I spend as much as the European vacation crowd, am I still in this elite club? I sure hope so.