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

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

My high income ($205k) is directly attributable to my $120k of student loans. Until those loans are gone -2 more months- I'm pretty much stuck in middle class when you apply the other cost of living in this area.

[Anonymous]

OK. As soon as our friends on the left stop taxing households that make $!00K or $!50K as the "wealthy."

[Anonymous]

I think the choice argument only works if these families could move to lower cost of living areas and still make that much. That usually isn't the case.

[Anonymous]

Well, it's based on Cost of Living where YOU live. In the close in neighborhoods in DC, NOVA and MOCo, that income puts a family of 4 squarely in the middle class. Yes, it isn't middle class as compared to the middle of the country but locally it is. If you make $250,000 annually in this area you live a middle class existence based on what everything you spend your money in costs. It's all relative, PP.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Has nothing to do with left or right. Both Obama and Romney said in the 2012 election that the "middle class" went up to $250K. For some reason, Romney got more flak for being "out of touch" for these comments though.

[Anonymous]

So is $500,000 a year "middle class" if you live on Park Avenue in Manhattan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, it's based on Cost of Living where YOU live. In the close in neighborhoods in DC, NOVA and MOCo, that income puts a family of 4 squarely in the middle class. Yes, it isn't middle class as compared to the middle of the country but locally it is. If you make $250,000 annually in this area you live a middle class existence based on what everything you spend your money in costs. It's all relative, PP.

An adjustment based on living costs and incomes across a region make sense, but if you just decide to include the affluent sections of said region, no it's not "middle class."

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is $500,000 a year "middle class" if you live on Park Avenue in Manhattan?

Lower middle class, actually, unless you're referring to Park Avenue north of 96th or south of 42nd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the choice argument only works if these families could move to lower cost of living areas and still make that much. That usually isn't the case.

This.

[Anonymous]

$250,000 is the median HH income in the wealthiest suburb, Chevy Chase. Even in Bethesda and Potomac, the median HH income is below $200K. And these are among the wealthiest places in the entire region. In MoCo as a whole, one of the most affluent counties in the country, it's less than $100K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the choice argument only works if these families could move to lower cost of living areas and still make that much. That usually isn't the case.

This.

I feel so sorry for those people who have no choice but to live in Chevy Chase or Great Falls. Must be tough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the choice argument only works if these families could move to lower cost of living areas and still make that much. That usually isn't the case.

The vast majority of families living in expensive DC, Bethesda, Chevy Chase or Arlington neighborhoods and complaining about cost of living, could move to Silver Spring, or PG County, or Burke and continue to work at the same jobs, and have the same income.

The PP was right. Short commutes, high scoring public schools, "walkable communities", these are luxuries. There's nothing wrong with wanting to have them, but they're expensive luxuries. If you're paying for them, and not making major sacrifices elsewhere, you probably aren't middle class.

[Anonymous]

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

You're deluded.