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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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."[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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