Democratic Party partisans are attacking Mitt Romney today for saying that “middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less.” Rightly so, for those earning $200,000 and more constitute only 4% of the US population, those earning over $150,000 only 9%, and the median income is just over $50,000. The super-rich Great Mittsby is obviously living in a money-fuelled bubble and completely out of touch with the common people, let alone the plight of those in the bottom 25% earning less than $25,000 a year.
The only trouble with the Dem outrage, though, is that Obama too has called earnings of $200,000 and less “middle-class”. Obama’s worth an estimated $6 million – not anywhere near the Romney-Kerry scale of rich but not exactly hurting. Jamelle Bouie gets it exactly right.
Of course, it makes sense that politicans would see ”œmiddle-class” as extending to people who make ”œ$200,000 to $250,000.” Lawmakers are far wealthier than the people they represent. The typical Democrat in Congress has a net worth of $878,500. The typical Republican? $957,500. Averaged, that’s more than nine times the net worth of most Americans.
In the real world””where only 9.1 percent of households make more than $150,000, and median income for all Americans is $50,054”””œ$200,000 to $250,000” places you at the top of the pyramid. That our politicians believe otherwise is a sign of their isolation from everyone but the well-off.
Yeah – this.
Income 200K or more is pretty much the low-end cutoff point for effective campaign support.
The rest of us might as well not exist.
…concept. Per the recent Pew work on the middle class, responses of what a middle class lifestyle required varied with household income:
Annual Household Income                Median of Income Said Required to be Middle Class
< $30,000Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $40,000
$30,000-$49,999Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $60,000
$50,000-$99,999Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $75,000
>=$100,000Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $100,000
Actual estimated median income for a family of four: $68,274
“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.” ~ Steve Jobs
Middle Class combined personal DEBT (Mortgage, Credit Cards, Car Loans, Student Loans) was $200-$250,000. Or was that Total Net Worth was $200-$250,000 . . . How do you spell CLUELESS?
Given that survey data, it may even be safe to say that middle class is probably between 70 and 100,000.
More interesting is that in the lower ranges, it looks like it’s always just a little bit more than the person responding has. Or another way to look at that is people seeing a bit more cushion as the definition of middle class.
…even those who are quite well off – they simply want to be comfortably middle class. For me, this is the natural outgrowth of a near deification of the middle class. That everyone of lower income demographics wants to be part of it is pretty understandable. The more problematic part for me is on the top end – these are folks who want to be “middle class” because the label insulates them from the criticism of being wealthy. It’s extremely fashionable today to blame everything on the top 0.1% but politically, the problems rest largely with those of the top quartile, or even third. Statements to watch out for are those to the effect of “but I worked hard for this”, “I deserve this”, “it’s so hard for the middle class” and derogatory statements about “them” or “they” that are shorthands for the less advantaged. Folks have gotten to be totally off their rocker about what constitutes a middle class lifestyle and they damned sure should be held accountable for the social, environmental, and political costs of that inflated definition. Just because they label themselves “middle class” it doesn’t mean they are and it doesn’t mean that they have the political interests of those with median incomes.
“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.” ~ Steve Jobs
What i find interesting is that comfortably middle class seems to focus on more money, even though there are more efficient ways to obtain comfort. I assume that the income numbers are based on gross income, and realized that in the last two years my household (two earners, no children) has reached the magic range of actual median income. So i guess i’m middle class. And while i wouldn’t say no to more money, i have to admit that i’m fairly comfortably middle class because i structured our major financial expenditures for a little more than half the current income … but i’m not going to buy a new house that stretches the budget; i’m not consenting to the purchase of any brand new car.
I’d say that what i have is a middle class lifestyle, and not because i have it. Nice but modest home, same with cars, no paycheck-to-paycheck fears, savings, etc. The standards you’re referencing are silly and they include “middle class” people needing $400,000 homes and all the trappings to go with it. So it’s not just the politicians skewing the definition of middle class, it’s us and our inane desire for metric crap tons of material possessions.
Is it too altruistic of me to think that i’d happily live at this level (with modest improvements based on age and trying to keep up with inflation) if a lot more people at the low end of the scale could live the life i have now?
The “upper middle class” under the definition I am about to suggest could go quite high. A lot of my definition of a liberal middle class has to do with what all you are willing to do yourself. Are you using Turbo-Tax to do your taxes? Is one spouse not working or only working part time so they can take care of child raising and house work? Or might that trade off work if you chose to make it work? Who mows your lawn? Generally if you and your spouse are managing and doing the maintenance of the home then that’s a middle class lifestyle. Perhaps even Warren Buffet type could fall into that category. Well, maybe not the Turbo Tax part. But you see where I’m going.
What is missing from this debate right here is the old notion of “upper middle class”. I would not be surprised to find families making a million a year falling into that upper middle class category. So then the question is one of is it a reasonable distinction or perhaps we should call them the “lower rich?”