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

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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]I think that's incredibly depressing, although accurate for this area. Luxuries should be things like affording a cleaning service, driving a Lexus, taking a vacation to Europe every summer, owning a beach house, etc. Being able to send your kids to a good school (not necessarily a 10 on great schools, but one with decent test scores and not a high percentage of ESOL students) and living within 30 minutes of your job shouldn't be just for the upper middle class.

I agree with you 100%. I grew up in a mid-sized town and "luxuries" like good schools and decent commutes were normal amenities for the middle class. There are benefits to living in a place like DC, for example a lot of jobs and exposure to different cultures, but people in the middle class here do not live as well as people in the middle class in other, less expensive areas. [/quote]

I hear this a lot on this website. I have lived in five different cities in my life--DC, one in the midwest, two on the West Coast, and one in Texas.  In every one of these cities, the areas that had short commutes that also were zoned for what were considered good schools have been expensive--at least relative to the cost of the rest of the city. Of course the cost of living varies--but so do the wages.

My in-laws live in a rural area. They consider themselves middle class--by the standards of this website they would be considered lower income, but by the standards of median income/income percentile, they are solidly in the middle of the income distribution. They didn't really think about what schools are "good" or not. They just sent DH and his sisters to the school they were zoned for.  It isn't like there is a whole lot of choice in rural areas.  Parents don't pour over greatschools ratings or buy real estate based on school zones--it's just not something that crosses people's mind.  My SIL lives in another town about an hour away from where they grew up, and also takes this approach to her kids' schools.

Where exactly are these areas where people "live so much better?"[/quote]

I'm the PP who agreed 100% with the other PP.  I grew up in Richmond (technically Henrico) and went to public school.  We had a much bigger and nicer house (in a nicer neighborhood) than I have here in DC even though my husband and I make double what my parents make.  I'm not saying you should feel sorry for me or anything, just that money simply doesn't go as far here.  It's a trade off - many people who live here wouldn't want to live in Richmond (though it's a nice place IMO), so you pay more but get different benefits like I mentioned in my PP.

So I think the definition of what makes middle class differs by area.  What is middle class?  Is it being able to save a minimal amount, not live paycheck to paycheck all of the time?  I think the definition is less about absolute numbers and more on your lifestyle.

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