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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that you are middle class if you have to look at what is coming in and what is going out and wonder if the income stops for a few months, can you survive?

I think that those of us that work for a living, have to [b]find childcare [/b](including making the financial call as to whether you can afford to be a SAHM), [b]care for elderly parents[/b], [b]have a mortgage or pay rent,[/b] and have to look at the cost of vacation (or save for one) are probably middle class.[/quote]

Why do people think that if they choose to spend more of their salary every month leaving less for disposable income, that makes them middle class?

The true middle class friends that I have, cut corners on all of these areas because that is their only choice.  Two families I know, a grandmother cut back to part-time work so that she could care for her grandchild(ren) part-time.  Then the parents went with part-time child-care, one at a less expensive daycare and one with a nanny share because that was all they could afford.  I know families that have had to continue to live in small houses in crappy school districts because that was all they could afford.  I know friends who cannot afford to care for their parents as they ail and have had to find eldercare that accepted medicaid because that was what they could afford.

If you can choose the best childcare for your child, if you can choose even the crappy house in the best school districts, if you can choose how to care for your elderly parents who need assistance, then you aren't just middle class.  The middle class doesn't have these options.

[b]So many DCUMers are so out of touch with reality.  Yes, there is a big difference between $300K and $5M but there is also a huge difference between middle class $150K and $300K.  I don't care if you live in a crappy shitshack, but when it costs you $800K because you live in Bethesda, then you aren't middle class.  Period[/b].[/quote]

Amen.  [/quote]

Middle class can vary from area to area, if housing eats up a lot of your income then you will be living the same lifestyle as people in less expensive areas. It is possible to be middle class on 150-300k if you compare that to someone in a lower COL area.[/quote]

And, case in point.  You *CHOOSE* to live in a higher cost area.  There is nothing forcing you to live in Bethesda.  You can live in Kensington or Wheaton or Silver Spring for a lot less than it takes to live in Bethesda.  It is a luxury to be able to live in a prime location, whether that is for easy commute, for good schools, for newer construction.  When you choose to live there, you are making a choice to spend that money.  In the more desirable parts of town, if you have that choice, you are not middle class.  Having the income to spend and spending it on a expensive luxury, makes one upper class.[/quote]

Not helping your point if you reference Kensington, Wheaton, and Silver Spring. (Or PG county, or SE DC, or whatever.) You can't buy a SFH in Kensington for less than $300,000. You can buy an enormous house with a yard near a metro area in many other parts of the country for that kind of money. If you live in Silver Spring, you are doing better than most Americans. Stop saying people in Burke or whatever are "middle class" in their $350K+ houses.[/quote]

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