Reply to What is Middle Class....Really?

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Reply to "What is Middle Class....Really?"

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[quote=Anonymous]I think it's interesting how everyone here is quick to put an income number or a job description down as the definition of "middle class."

To me, middle class means you can afford to own your own home with enough savings that you are not living paycheck to paycheck and an occasional emergency will not wipe out your finances.  If you choose to have kids, the definition needs to be expanded to include being able to afford to raise them to a decent standard of living in an area with average or better schools.

That means income is not a great gauge of middle class, because it takes significantly less income to achieve this in, say, Herndon than it does in DC proper.  Likewise it is silly to say "white collar office workers" are middle class when a hill staffer could never dream of that lifestyle on their salary while a plumber easily fits the definition.

I don't care what your job is or how much money you make, middle class to me is about stability.  If you make $40K and live in a pid off 1BR condo, have modest tastes and no kids, and sock away 50% of your income for a rainy day, you're solidly middle class in my book. If you're pulling in $200K but live in a McMansion with no equity and a massive ARM, leverage yourself to your eyeballs to take extravagant vacations, and lease 7-series' for each of your kids, and losing your job means you lose all of that the next month the bills are due, you're working class.

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