Reply to If you are middle class (<150k HHI), how would things be different if you were rich (>400k HHI)

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Reply to "If you are middle class (<150k HHI), how would things be different if you were rich (>400k HHI)"

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[quote=Anonymous]I do think that middle class no longer refers to the middle of the income spectrum. Historically, in Europe the middle classes were people in the approx top 20% of the population. Just underneath the 1% who were primarily the aristocracy. The rest were the working classes, and then the outright poor.

When I consider the assumptions for a standard middle of the pack American middle class lifestyle, it means having a standard SFH, say 1800-2200 sqft, two cars that aren't junkers, one trip a year to a beach, some savings for rainy days and retirement, being able to help with college, going out to dinner once in a while - that's what people took for granted as a middle class life in the 1980s. The difference from the 1950s was that it could be had on one income in the 50s, in the 80s it was taking two incomes but it was still a middle class life.

Today? I'd think 150k is really the threshold when you can do this for a family. A family of four living off 80k in most metro area is not middle class, but working class.

There's been a lot of talk about the hollowing out of the middle classes and growing income disparities, and this is a big part of it. [/quote]

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