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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, well, you can define middle class however *you* want to, but don't get offended when social scientists and labor experts think you're an idiot.

They're the upper middle class then. Who are in the top 5% of income earners in this country. Their experience is very, very different from the working class majority and even most of the "regular" middle class. Nothing "ordinary" or "humble" about their incomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we still going on about this?

No, we cannot stop referring to households making $200-$300 K as "middle class," because they are firmly in the middle class by every definition. Middle class does not mean "median income," and it does not mean you have to be "struggling financially," whatever that means to you. Middle class defines a social class, of which income is only a part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class

If you take it upon yourself to redefine middle class, you should exclude those below $200. Because comparing and lumping $50 and $200 together in one social class is silly. To anyone with common sense, I mean. It may make complete sense to those who rely on Wiki for their wordly expertise

Okay, well, you can define middle class however *you* want to, but don't get offended when social scientists and labor experts think you're an idiot.

You're neither a scientist, nor an expert. You're a pimply millenial stuck to an iPhone and Wikipedia

[Anonymous]

The $350K earner who feels "squeezed" by the high cost of childcare and housing really needs to get a financial adviser.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The $350K earner who feels "squeezed" by the high cost of childcare and housing really needs to get a financial adviser.

Cause 350k buys you the same everywhere in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cause 350k buys you the same everywhere in the world.

It has nothing to do whether it gets you "the same" in New York or Omaha.

In every region of the country it is a very high income. Anybody who feels they are "struggling" is either very bad with money or feels that need to keep up with their even wealthier neighbors and acquaintances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cause 350k buys you the same everywhere in the world.

It has nothing to do whether it gets you "the same" in New York or Omaha.

In every region of the country it is a very high income. Anybody who feels they are "struggling" is either very bad with money or feels that need to keep up with their even wealthier neighbors and acquaintances.

Amen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The $350K earner who feels "squeezed" by the high cost of childcare and housing really needs to get a financial adviser.

Cause 350k buys you the same everywhere in the world.

Since this is a DC board, I'm pretty sure most posters are aware of the general COL in the area. I agree with the PP- you need a financial advisor if housing and childcare are somehow eating up all your income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

$350k
- take home monthly pay: ~18k
- so if their disposable income after mortgage is still $6300, that's a whopping $11700 mortgage, or perhaps less if she was factoring in the massive bills from heating/cooling such a big house.

Seems like a lot, but...
$3200 mortgage ($550K home)
$ 1200 per child -- child care
$1000 month food
$1000 month -- car payments (500 each car for two working parents)
$500 moth -- other -- insurance, savings, debt pay off, clothes, vacations, retirement

That is middle class life. It is the cost of housing and daycare which makes it so expensive to live here.

On a 350k HHI? Where's the rest going then? The number you listed above totals $6700. That's less than our net monthly income on a $160k HHI. Cmon, do you think we're stupid or something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing ordinary about making north of $200K, which puts one in the top 5% of the country. How is that "middle"? And please don't say "250K doesn't get you very far in NW DC, Chevy Chase and Bethesda" - living in an expensive area is a choice. When I lived in NYC, I remember wealthy professionals in Manhattan saying these incomes are "barely getting by" - as if choosing to live in Manhattan isn't itself a luxury.

http://mic.com/articles/64095/what-we-get-wrong-when-we-define-the-middle-class

If a person works in Manhattan, where should they live? Iowa? Idiot

No Jersey City.

New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the nation, unless of course you would have them drive 1.5 hours to get to work because there's no PATH stations in their county

Okay smarty pants - but that is where my middle class friend rents an apartment and commutes from. remember we are talking middle class here!

Renting an apartment is hardly middle class. Having a mortgage on a freestanding house is middle class. And that is expensive in the NYC Metro Region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing ordinary about making north of $200K, which puts one in the top 5% of the country. How is that "middle"? And please don't say "250K doesn't get you very far in NW DC, Chevy Chase and Bethesda" - living in an expensive area is a choice. When I lived in NYC, I remember wealthy professionals in Manhattan saying these incomes are "barely getting by" - as if choosing to live in Manhattan isn't itself a luxury.

http://mic.com/articles/64095/what-we-get-wrong-when-we-define-the-middle-class

If a person works in Manhattan, where should they live? Iowa? Idiot

No Jersey City.

New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the nation, unless of course you would have them drive 1.5 hours to get to work because there's no PATH stations in their county

Okay smarty pants - but that is where my middle class friend rents an apartment and commutes from. remember we are talking middle class here!

Renting an apartment is hardly middle class. Having a mortgage on a freestanding house is middle class. And that is expensive in the NYC Metro Region.

Middle class means different things in different areas. In an area where the majority of people live in apartments, then the middle class live in apartments too.

Are you going to argue that the people who live in the $5Million Penthouses on Park Avenue aren't middle class either, they're poor because their homes aren't "freestanding".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing ordinary about making north of $200K, which puts one in the top 5% of the country. How is that "middle"? And please don't say "250K doesn't get you very far in NW DC, Chevy Chase and Bethesda" - living in an expensive area is a choice. When I lived in NYC, I remember wealthy professionals in Manhattan saying these incomes are "barely getting by" - as if choosing to live in Manhattan isn't itself a luxury.

http://mic.com/articles/64095/what-we-get-wrong-when-we-define-the-middle-class

If a person works in Manhattan, where should they live? Iowa? Idiot

No Jersey City.

New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the nation, unless of course you would have them drive 1.5 hours to get to work because there's no PATH stations in their county

Okay smarty pants - but that is where my middle class friend rents an apartment and commutes from. remember we are talking middle class here!

Renting an apartment is hardly middle class. Having a mortgage on a freestanding house is middle class. And that is expensive in the NYC Metro Region.

Seriously? Everyone who rents is not middle class? That is laughable. You don't have to own to be middle class or even rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing ordinary about making north of $200K, which puts one in the top 5% of the country. How is that "middle"? And please don't say "250K doesn't get you very far in NW DC, Chevy Chase and Bethesda" - living in an expensive area is a choice. When I lived in NYC, I remember wealthy professionals in Manhattan saying these incomes are "barely getting by" - as if choosing to live in Manhattan isn't itself a luxury.

http://mic.com/articles/64095/what-we-get-wrong-when-we-define-the-middle-class

If a person works in Manhattan, where should they live? Iowa? Idiot

No Jersey City.

New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the nation, unless of course you would have them drive 1.5 hours to get to work because there's no PATH stations in their county

Okay smarty pants - but that is where my middle class friend rents an apartment and commutes from. remember we are talking middle class here!

Renting an apartment is hardly middle class. Having a mortgage on a freestanding house is middle class. And that is expensive in the NYC Metro Region.

Middle class means different things in different areas. In an area where the majority of people live in apartments, then the middle class live in apartments too.

Are you going to argue that the people who live in the $5Million Penthouses on Park Avenue aren't middle class either, they're poor because their homes aren't "freestanding".

I with you. Apparently PP has a very narrow understanding of how different people live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Renting an apartment is hardly middle class. Having a mortgage on a freestanding house is middle class. And that is expensive in the NYC Metro Region.

And yet the vast majority of Westchester and Long Island residents live in households that make less than $200K.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Renting an apartment is hardly middle class. Having a mortgage on a freestanding house is middle class. And that is expensive in the NYC Metro Region.[/quote]

And yet the vast majority of Westchester and Long Island residents live in households that make less than $200K.

[/quote]

And they struggle like we do here

[Anonymous]

So they're sub-middle class then?