Go read Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (or the Wikipedia article if you're too lower class to read books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class:_A_Guide_Through_the_American_Status_System)

I think class is mostly money. The whole if you have to work you are x is nonsense. What does have to work mean. By 50 most high end lawyers doctors and executives could stop working. Might not be at some level of spend but they could live well. They still work.

Anonymous wrote:There are some real idiots that post on here.

😂❤️

There are some real idiots that post on here.

Since when is 1 million income “poor to the really rich people” or just “middle class in HCOL area”

That’s really wealthy to most people

If you earn in the top 20% your are UC. Middle 60%, middle class. Lower 20%, lower class. If you HAVE to make distinctions based upon your locality, just apply that. But keep in mind that in doing so you out yourself as a resident of the Capital in the Hunger Games.

Anonymous wrote:Middle class in a HCOL is up to $1m

Only if class is primarily defined by how much money you have left over after you spend your extremely high salary on luxury goods (like a house in a HCOL area). Which I realize is a common definition here, but it's also sort of silly. There are plenty of cheaper places you could live even in an expensive area on your $1 million salary.

Anonymous wrote:For me

UC is rich with no need to work in order to maintain lifestyle

UMC well off, but work is required to maintain lifestyle. Most things are affordable with little to no budgeting necessary

MC can afford to live comfortable if modestly

LMC can afford to live modestly, but unexpected expenses or interruptions in income can be disastrous.

LC makes too little to afford necessities with paycheck

This leaves too much room for variation. One person is happy living on $50k/year in retirement. Between social security and modest investments, she has "no need to work in order to maintain lifestyle." Is she more upper class than someone in the rat race earning 7 figures, hanging out at country clubs, taking fancy vacations, sending his kids to private school? Even though his net worth is many millions, there's no way he can stop working and still maintain the same lifestyle. Not yet, at least. But still - I think everyone would agree, looking at the two scenarios, that the working stiff is living a higher class life than the modest retiree.

For me

UC is rich with no need to work in order to maintain lifestyle

UMC well off, but work is required to maintain lifestyle. Most things are affordable with little to no budgeting necessary

MC can afford to live comfortable if modestly

LMC can afford to live modestly, but unexpected expenses or interruptions in income can be disastrous.

LC makes too little to afford necessities with paycheck

It also involves family support and educational background.

Anonymous wrote:The mistake most people make is conflating wealth with class.

We don't have an aristocracy. Wealth is a proxy for class in the US.

The thing is there are many more gradations of class than UC, UMC, MC, LC.

Some people argue that someone working 50 hours a week making a million a year is UC. Yet the people who ski in aspen and shop on rodeo drive would look at the same individual as working poor.

Middle class in a HCOL is up to $1m