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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
As a middle class person, here are the luxuries I imagine that you have

I imagine that you own your own home, either a rowhouse in the city or a SFH, and a guaranteed place to park the car within a block or so.

Home ownership is not a luxury. It's common for the middle class lifestyle to own a home, or even a nice home. Your definition of luxury is skewed and irrational.

Anonymous wrote:
I imagine that if you have kids under school age, they have childcare arrangements that you chose carefully, and that if your kid are school age, you felt that you had some degree of choice in where you sent them to school, either because you could afford to live in an area where you liked the private schools, or because you can afford the time and gas to drive them to a charter school in another part of the city, or because you send them to private.

Parents of all economic classes do this for the benefit of their kids. My parents moved us out to the edge of Anne Arundle county so that we could go to a better school. Buying into the best school district you can is not somehow the exclusive luxury of the rich, it's a very middle class thing to do. Sure, I can buy into Langley, someone making $100k/year may not. But FCPS in general is very good and it is arguable whether you get a better education out of Langley.

Anonymous wrote:
I imagine that you drive a car that, most of the time, you can rely on because it runs well, and that if it unexpectedly broke down tomorrow, you'd be able to replace it with something else reliable.

Wait, what? That's a luxury? The average new car in the US is bought for $31,252. You can certainly buy something reliable and runs well with that amount.

Anonymous wrote:
I imagine that if your child, like mine, developed a life threatening medical condition, you wouldn't need to pick up extra hours at work, like I did, to pay for the doctors. In fact you might even take time off to be there to support your child.

Insurance is a luxury? Again, the average middle class family have health insurance.

Anonymous wrote:
I imagine that you have central air conditioning, and your own washer/dryer, and that if one of these things breaks you call someone to fix it, rather than doing without.

Again, all very middle class things. What the heck.

Anonymous wrote:
I could go on.

What, are you going to next claim that I am rich because I can afford a $20 hair cut?

Anonymous wrote:
Am I really wrong in what I imagine that you have that I don't? Am I really the one who doesn't understand how you live, rather than vice versa?

The things you listed above are all middle class things. They are not exclusively for the upper class or rich/wealthy families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As a middle class person, here are the luxuries I imagine that you have

I imagine that you own your own home, either a rowhouse in the city or a SFH, and a guaranteed place to park the car within a block or so.

Home ownership is not a luxury. It's common for the middle class lifestyle to own a home, or even a nice home. Your definition of luxury is skewed and irrational.

Anonymous wrote:
I imagine that if you have kids under school age, they have childcare arrangements that you chose carefully, and that if your kid are school age, you felt that you had some degree of choice in where you sent them to school, either because you could afford to live in an area where you liked the private schools, or because you can afford the time and gas to drive them to a charter school in another part of the city, or because you send them to private.

Parents of all economic classes do this for the benefit of their kids. My parents moved us out to the edge of Anne Arundle county so that we could go to a better school. Buying into the best school district you can is not somehow the exclusive luxury of the rich, it's a very middle class thing to do. Sure, I can buy into Langley, someone making $100k/year may not. But FCPS in general is very good and it is arguable whether you get a better education out of Langley.

Anonymous wrote:
I imagine that you drive a car that, most of the time, you can rely on because it runs well, and that if it unexpectedly broke down tomorrow, you'd be able to replace it with something else reliable.

Wait, what? That's a luxury? The average new car in the US is bought for $31,252. You can certainly buy something reliable and runs well with that amount.

Anonymous wrote:
I imagine that if your child, like mine, developed a life threatening medical condition, you wouldn't need to pick up extra hours at work, like I did, to pay for the doctors. In fact you might even take time off to be there to support your child.

Insurance is a luxury? Again, the average middle class family have health insurance.

Anonymous wrote:
I imagine that you have central air conditioning, and your own washer/dryer, and that if one of these things breaks you call someone to fix it, rather than doing without.

Again, all very middle class things. What the heck.

Anonymous wrote:
I could go on.

What, are you going to next claim that I am rich because I can afford a $20 hair cut?

Anonymous wrote:
Am I really wrong in what I imagine that you have that I don't? Am I really the one who doesn't understand how you live, rather than vice versa?

The things you listed above are all middle class things. They are not exclusively for the upper class or rich/wealthy families.

I am not respon

I am responding to the statement that those who make $250K have "marginally different" lifestyles from those who make $100K, and that I can't possibly imagine your lifestyle. Here I have described a very typical lifestyle of someone with a 100K salary. I also seem to have accurately described your lifestyle. Yet, I'm the one who is deluded.

As far as your "average people have health insurance", most of us have health insurance with deductibles, and co-pays and out of network exclusions that don't cover the doctors with the best success rates.

[Anonymous]

Ha, guess what? Rich people don't have health insurance at all. They just pay the bill when it comes in without batting an eye.

- medical secretary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been beaten to death. People in DC who make over $150k believe that that money should buy you certain things. It should buy you a house with an easy commute, good school district, ability to save for retirement and perhaps a vacation.

But it does not. Housing and childcare eat up much of the budget. Middle class can't live with a short commute. They have to live further out. Retirement is suspended by the need to pay for childcare. Vacations are more along ocean city rather than Aruba.

The DC middle class do not have the buying power that the rest of the countries middle class have. So we can argue about absolute dollars with regard to HHI, but middle class is about lifestyle. And $150k for a family of 4, does not buy a middle class lifestyle.

You are omitting so many factors that make DC different from those other cities, and therefore more in demand with accompanying higher prices. We have three large airports within an hour of the district, a large metro system, world class museums and performing arts, a research zoo, three large research universities in the district, and several more colleges, in nearby suburbs, a growing tech business, several major health systems, several national sports teams, and of course hundreds of thousands of unique employment opportunities for white collar workers because DC is the seat of the federal govt. You are not going to get this incredible mix of opportunities in a city of average cost. A middle class life in DC will buy you proximity to these things as a trade off to a larger house or shorter commute.

Correct. But again, these are largely intangibles. So when policymakers say they want to tax you more because you're not middle class, or you don't qualify for college aid, because you're not middle class, they are assuming that you are putting the money into savings or spending on something that you could go without. When actually, you are spending it on housing and associated increased cost of living expenses, and the "benefits" you are getting are intangibles and can't be "cut." So people in higher cost of living areas are disadvantaged, when their incomes are classified as "wealthy" but their standard of living is what would be considered middle class anywhere else, with various intangible amenities associated with the location.

No, these are not intangibles. Having good public transit is not an intangible for the thousands of workers to take the Metro to work and school each day. I don't have to drive three hours to get to a regional airport, only to have to transfer to a major hub. I don't have to wait for a yearly field trip to the art museum in the "big" city to ensure that my kids see great art, or listen to a major symphony. DH is employed by a major university in this area, which means my kids get discounted tuition, should the time come. I work for the federal gov't in an office that exists only in DC, so yes, my GS-14 paycheck is a very tangible benefit I get from living in DC (plus COLA). I had very serious pregnancy complications that did not require me to stay at a hospital 90 minutes away from my husband and toddler. And as for housing and college aid, college financial aid offices most definitely take into account the fact that housing is much, much more expensive in DC than in Oklahoma City, when they calculate parental contributions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still do not understand the almost aggressive way DCUMers making $300K want to be called middle class. Why are you not proud of having achieved more than 95% of other people?

That's like telling people your kid with 4.5 GPA is an average student. It doesn't make you seem humble, it makes you seem hopelessly greedy. "I have soooooo much, but I want MORE."

The reason why has been pointed out numerous times in this thread. Your lack of understanding boils down to being dense at this point.

Of course I am proud of my achievements. I live a disciplined life of hard work, with long hours and tireless dedication. I pay a huge amount in taxes each year, and the lifestyle I live is not fabulous, just marginally better than the average middle class. Yet at every opportunity, liberal politicians label me as the rich, they claim I don't pay my fair share. They use their position of power to rally the masses against the likes of me in order to advance their agenda. People like you then pile on top telling me how good I have it. Yes, I have it good, but it's not as good as you imagine it. I am more like you than I am like someone in the top 0.5%. We share the same concerns, we have the same need to stay working to support a family.

And you are deceiving yourself. You make in the top 3% of the region. 97% of the households in the greater DC metropolitan area make less money than you do. The arguments that so many of the out-of-touch-with-reality $250K-300K people don't understand are these differences:

You: I have a large amount of student loans. I went to a prestigious Ivy, SLAC or private institution, I have at least one advanced degree to allow me to make more money.
Middle class: I have student loans. I went to a state school, still had to get student loans and had to work through college to pay for everything other than tuition.

You: I have a crappy little shit shack. True I live close in and can get downtown in 30 minutes, but it's still small and old. The one good thing is that I was able to buy in an area with good public schools so that I can send my kids to public and not have to pay for private
Middle class: I have a crappy little house. I live out in one of the exurbs and spend over an hour on the VRE or drive and spend over and hour on the highways into town, and get backed up at the bridges. Like you my mortgage is 35% of my monthly income, but I guess its okay because I pay $1500 a month less than you. I bought where I could afford and the schools are okay, but not as good as yours.

You: I have to pay twice as much for a cheap church basement daycare compared to what people can pay for a new building in the outer suburbs.
Middle class: I don't use daycare. My mother has now semi-retired and works part-time so that she can watch my child until 3. I get up and leave home at 4:30am so that I can be home at 3:30pm and she can go and work for four hours. It's not great, but we can't afford daycare, even that less expensive one in the brand new building.

Most of you don't acknowledge that the choices that you've made for more expensive housing and more expensive (whether they are better or not) childcare and higher student loans are all luxuries that only the upper class can afford. The middle class cannot afford the things that cost you so much of your disposable income. If you can afford to own a SFH in a close-in suburb, then you are by definition upper class. The middle class rents, or buys condos or buys smaller townhouses or they live further out. You get to choose your form of childcare and the expensive church basement daycare is at least an option for you. The middle class could not afford that church basement daycare. When they live close in, they look for in-home daycares, or drastically time shift their schedules so that they can use part-time daycare which is what they can afford. Or they move further out and use a daycare that you would never trust. Because that's what they can afford in order to keep their lower paying job than yours.

Stop trying to argue that you're so poor. You may not have new cars or vacations, but you have choices. You made expensive ones, but you HAD the option to choose that. The middle class doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still do not understand the almost aggressive way DCUMers making $300K want to be called middle class. Why are you not proud of having achieved more than 95% of other people?

That's like telling people your kid with 4.5 GPA is an average student. It doesn't make you seem humble, it makes you seem hopelessly greedy. "I have soooooo much, but I want MORE."

The reason why has been pointed out numerous times in this thread. Your lack of understanding boils down to being dense at this point.

Of course I am proud of my achievements. I live a disciplined life of hard work, with long hours and tireless dedication. I pay a huge amount in taxes each year, and the lifestyle I live is not fabulous, just marginally better than the average middle class. Yet at every opportunity, liberal politicians label me as the rich, they claim I don't pay my fair share. They use their position of power to rally the masses against the likes of me in order to advance their agenda. People like you then pile on top telling me how good I have it. Yes, I have it good, but it's not as good as you imagine it. I am more like you than I am like someone in the top 0.5%. We share the same concerns, we have the same need to stay working to support a family.

I can relate to this. It's just very hard to be told that because I make $200K I am a bank for wealth redistribution. It is further galling that the rate that will be applied to my $200K in DC would be the same as the rate applied to someone making $200K in say, Oklahoma, where the cost of living is significantly less. Everyone seems to want a piece of me, from repair people to child care providers, all because I live in N. Bethesda. I know I should be grateful, but it is tiresome to be told I am rich, when I have to count every penny to make sure my kids can go to college because we won't get any aid, because people think I am rich. Again, if I could make half that and move to Iowa, I would to get away from all the hubbub of DC. This place is ridiculous. And, unfortunately, I don't get to leave my work at the office. It follows me home by virtue of my smartphone.

And, please don't tell me that I don't know what it is like to make virtually nothing in a high priced area. I spent 4 years in the military in a high priced region of the country knowing what it is like not to afford anything. What blows my mind is the cost of having kids in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still do not understand the almost aggressive way DCUMers making $300K want to be called middle class. Why are you not proud of having achieved more than 95% of other people?

That's like telling people your kid with 4.5 GPA is an average student. It doesn't make you seem humble, it makes you seem hopelessly greedy. "I have soooooo much, but I want MORE."

The reason why has been pointed out numerous times in this thread. Your lack of understanding boils down to being dense at this point.

Of course I am proud of my achievements. I live a disciplined life of hard work, with long hours and tireless dedication. I pay a huge amount in taxes each year, and the lifestyle I live is not fabulous, just marginally better than the average middle class. Yet at every opportunity, liberal politicians label me as the rich, they claim I don't pay my fair share. They use their position of power to rally the masses against the likes of me in order to advance their agenda. People like you then pile on top telling me how good I have it. Yes, I have it good, but it's not as good as you imagine it. I am more like you than I am like someone in the top 0.5%. We share the same concerns, we have the same need to stay working to support a family.

I can relate to this. It's just very hard to be told that because I make $200K I am a bank for wealth redistribution. It is further galling that the rate that will be applied to my $200K in DC would be the same as the rate applied to someone making $200K in say, Oklahoma, where the cost of living is significantly less. Everyone seems to want a piece of me, from repair people to child care providers, all because I live in N. Bethesda. I know I should be grateful, but it is tiresome to be told I am rich, when I have to count every penny to make sure my kids can go to college because we won't get any aid, because people think I am rich. Again, if I could make half that and move to Iowa, I would to get away from all the hubbub of DC. This place is ridiculous. And, unfortunately, I don't get to leave my work at the office. It follows me home by virtue of my smartphone.

And, please don't tell me that I don't know what it is like to make virtually nothing in a high priced area. I spent 4 years in the military in a high priced region of the country knowing what it is like not to afford anything. What blows my mind is the cost of having kids in this area.

Could you be employed in the same capacity in OK? Could your spouse? Would you be willing to give up all that is great about your neighborhood and city to live in OK?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been beaten to death. People in DC who make over $150k believe that that money should buy you certain things. It should buy you a house with an easy commute, good school district, ability to save for retirement and perhaps a vacation.

But it does not. Housing and childcare eat up much of the budget. Middle class can't live with a short commute. They have to live further out. Retirement is suspended by the need to pay for childcare. Vacations are more along ocean city rather than Aruba.

The DC middle class do not have the buying power that the rest of the countries middle class have. So we can argue about absolute dollars with regard to HHI, but middle class is about lifestyle. And $150k for a family of 4, does not buy a middle class lifestyle.

You are omitting so many factors that make DC different from those other cities, and therefore more in demand with accompanying higher prices. We have three large airports within an hour of the district, a large metro system, world class museums and performing arts, a research zoo, three large research universities in the district, and several more colleges, in nearby suburbs, a growing tech business, several major health systems, several national sports teams, and of course hundreds of thousands of unique employment opportunities for white collar workers because DC is the seat of the federal govt. You are not going to get this incredible mix of opportunities in a city of average cost. A middle class life in DC will buy you proximity to these things as a trade off to a larger house or shorter commute.

Correct. But again, these are largely intangibles. So when policymakers say they want to tax you more because you're not middle class, or you don't qualify for college aid, because you're not middle class, they are assuming that you are putting the money into savings or spending on something that you could go without. When actually, you are spending it on housing and associated increased cost of living expenses, and the "benefits" you are getting are intangibles and can't be "cut." So people in higher cost of living areas are disadvantaged, when their incomes are classified as "wealthy" but their standard of living is what would be considered middle class anywhere else, with various intangible amenities associated with the location.

No, the fuck you did not say that you were "disadvantaged" because you cannot get the benefits you were looking for.
So many of you are so damned deluded it's pitiful.
Yes our household income is over $200,000 and NOT THE FUCK WE ARE NOT MIDDLE CLASS.
We CHOSE to live in this area
We CHOSE our career paths and the jobs that brought us here
We get to CHOOSE from a lot more options that people earning much less and in lower cost of living areas do not get to choose from
Because I do not have something I want and expected does not magically make me something I am not
DAFUQ?!

You are absolutely disadvantaged compared to someone with the same income in a lower cost of living area, when things are not indexed to the cost of living. That is not the same as being "disadvantaged" in the normal socioeconomic sense.

so fucking move

Why so angry?

because you are so utterly ridiculously entitled. and you're right - i need to step away from this thread.

Good riddance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And you are deceiving yourself. You make in the top 3% of the region. 97% of the households in the greater DC metropolitan area make less money than you do. The arguments that so many of the out-of-touch-with-reality $250K-300K people don't understand are these differences:

You: I have a large amount of student loans. I went to a prestigious Ivy, SLAC or private institution, I have at least one advanced degree to allow me to make more money.
Middle class: I have student loans. I went to a state school, still had to get student loans and had to work through college to pay for everything other than tuition.

You: I have a crappy little shit shack. True I live close in and can get downtown in 30 minutes, but it's still small and old. The one good thing is that I was able to buy in an area with good public schools so that I can send my kids to public and not have to pay for private
Middle class: I have a crappy little house. I live out in one of the exurbs and spend over an hour on the VRE or drive and spend over and hour on the highways into town, and get backed up at the bridges. Like you my mortgage is 35% of my monthly income, but I guess its okay because I pay $1500 a month less than you. I bought where I could afford and the schools are okay, but not as good as yours.

You: I have to pay twice as much for a cheap church basement daycare compared to what people can pay for a new building in the outer suburbs.
Middle class: I don't use daycare. My mother has now semi-retired and works part-time so that she can watch my child until 3. I get up and leave home at 4:30am so that I can be home at 3:30pm and she can go and work for four hours. It's not great, but we can't afford daycare, even that less expensive one in the brand new building.

Most of you don't acknowledge that the choices that you've made for more expensive housing and more expensive (whether they are better or not) childcare and higher student loans are all luxuries that only the upper class can afford. The middle class cannot afford the things that cost you so much of your disposable income. If you can afford to own a SFH in a close-in suburb, then you are by definition upper class. The middle class rents, or buys condos or buys smaller townhouses or they live further out. You get to choose your form of childcare and the expensive church basement daycare is at least an option for you. The middle class could not afford that church basement daycare. When they live close in, they look for in-home daycares, or drastically time shift their schedules so that they can use part-time daycare which is what they can afford. Or they move further out and use a daycare that you would never trust. Because that's what they can afford in order to keep their lower paying job than yours.

Stop trying to argue that you're so poor. You may not have new cars or vacations, but you have choices. You made expensive ones, but you HAD the option to choose that. The middle class doesn't.

Just stop. You are 100 percent wrong. Putting your kid in a church basement daycare and the other things you cite are not upper class. They just aren't. I get that you have a beef with the $$ range that spans the entire middle class, but nothing, nothing you cite is "upper class."

- new poster who also hates the "300K and poor" threads, but understands the concept of classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even as the upper middle class group enjoy marginally better quality of life, their life style is similar and they can closely relate to other people in the middle class.

I don't think the $250,000 doesn't get you very far" types can really relate to people in the actual middle class.

Really? Really? Isn't that what the whole "doesn't get you very far" concept means? It doesn't get you very far, meaning you are still largely the same as those making $100k, just marginally better, not very far.

Understand?

I do make 100k. We had to get an FHA loan with 3% down to afford the house...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course I am proud of my achievements. I live a disciplined life of hard work, with long hours and tireless dedication. I pay a huge amount in taxes each year, and the lifestyle I live is not fabulous, just marginally better than the average middle class. Yet at every opportunity, liberal politicians label me as the rich, they claim I don't pay my fair share. They use their position of power to rally the masses against the likes of me in order to advance their agenda. People like you then pile on top telling me how good I have it. Yes, I have it good, but it's not as good as you imagine it. I am more like you than I am like someone in the top 0.5%. We share the same concerns, we have the same need to stay working to support a family.

God, you're ridiculous. You make it sound as soon as if you make a dollar over $250K, you'd have to hand half your income to the IRS. Not to mention your TAXABLE income is always less than your net income. If you make say, $270K, you're not likely to be any more in taxes at all, or if not a pittance. One can debate the merits of raising taxes on very high incomes, but this idea that you'd be significantly impacted in any way is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still do not understand the almost aggressive way DCUMers making $300K want to be called middle class. Why are you not proud of having achieved more than 95% of other people?

That's like telling people your kid with 4.5 GPA is an average student. It doesn't make you seem humble, it makes you seem hopelessly greedy. "I have soooooo much, but I want MORE."

The reason why has been pointed out numerous times in this thread. Your lack of understanding boils down to being dense at this point.

Of course I am proud of my achievements. I live a disciplined life of hard work, with long hours and tireless dedication. I pay a huge amount in taxes each year, and the lifestyle I live is not fabulous, just marginally better than the average middle class. Yet at every opportunity, liberal politicians label me as the rich, they claim I don't pay my fair share. They use their position of power to rally the masses against the likes of me in order to advance their agenda. People like you then pile on top telling me how good I have it. Yes, I have it good, but it's not as good as you imagine it. I am more like you than I am like someone in the top 0.5%. We share the same concerns, we have the same need to stay working to support a family.

I can relate to this. It's just very hard to be told that because I make $200K I am a bank for wealth redistribution. It is further galling that the rate that will be applied to my $200K in DC would be the same as the rate applied to someone making $200K in say, Oklahoma, where the cost of living is significantly less. Everyone seems to want a piece of me, from repair people to child care providers, all because I live in N. Bethesda. I know I should be grateful, but it is tiresome to be told I am rich, when I have to count every penny to make sure my kids can go to college because we won't get any aid, because people think I am rich. Again, if I could make half that and move to Iowa, I would to get away from all the hubbub of DC. This place is ridiculous. And, unfortunately, I don't get to leave my work at the office. It follows me home by virtue of my smartphone.

And, please don't tell me that I don't know what it is like to make virtually nothing in a high priced area. I spent 4 years in the military in a high priced region of the country knowing what it is like not to afford anything. What blows my mind is the cost of having kids in this area.

Okay so here's the thing, if everyone's taxes were lower then everyone would have more money and your house would be more expensive and you'd be no better off. You have to climb higher than the 97 percentile to be better.

[Anonymous]

A bunch of entitled, high earning, big ass babies!!!
If I have $300 and I choose to shop at Nordstrom's and can only afford one item, that does not somehow mean my $300 bucks is no longer $ 300.00.
It is
What
It is
I could have taken my ass to the dollar tree and gotten more, but I didn't !!!

[Anonymous]

DC is not the only expensive spot in the country, you idiots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still do not understand the almost aggressive way DCUMers making $300K want to be called middle class. Why are you not proud of having achieved more than 95% of other people?

That's like telling people your kid with 4.5 GPA is an average student. It doesn't make you seem humble, it makes you seem hopelessly greedy. "I have soooooo much, but I want MORE."

The reason why has been pointed out numerous times in this thread. Your lack of understanding boils down to being dense at this point.

Of course I am proud of my achievements. I live a disciplined life of hard work, with long hours and tireless dedication. I pay a huge amount in taxes each year, and the lifestyle I live is not fabulous, just marginally better than the average middle class. Yet at every opportunity, liberal politicians label me as the rich, they claim I don't pay my fair share. They use their position of power to rally the masses against the likes of me in order to advance their agenda. People like you then pile on top telling me how good I have it. Yes, I have it good, but it's not as good as you imagine it. I am more like you than I am like someone in the top 0.5%. We share the same concerns, we have the same need to stay working to support a family.

I can relate to this. It's just very hard to be told that because I make $200K I am a bank for wealth redistribution. It is further galling that the rate that will be applied to my $200K in DC would be the same as the rate applied to someone making $200K in say, Oklahoma, where the cost of living is significantly less. Everyone seems to want a piece of me, from repair people to child care providers, all because I live in N. Bethesda. I know I should be grateful, but it is tiresome to be told I am rich, when I have to count every penny to make sure my kids can go to college because we won't get any aid, because people think I am rich. Again, if I could make half that and move to Iowa, I would to get away from all the hubbub of DC. This place is ridiculous. And, unfortunately, I don't get to leave my work at the office. It follows me home by virtue of my smartphone.

And, please don't tell me that I don't know what it is like to make virtually nothing in a high priced area. I spent 4 years in the military in a high priced region of the country knowing what it is like not to afford anything. What blows my mind is the cost of having kids in this area.

Tough luck. It's funny to observe the tunnel vision in this thread. It seems our "middle class" can't fathom that the overwhelming majority of the families in this country cannot afford a McMansion or a fancy car. Those are not luxuries, those are pure necesseties