<p>I totally see where you’re coming from BigKev.</p>
<p>My family makes about 250k. But for most of my childhood my dad was self-employed, making far less than that. I live in one of the most expensive areas in the country. Even our groceries cost more than in many other areas of the country. Here, a four-bedroom house not in the ghetto costs at least 1.3 million. $500,000 will get you a tiny studio apartment in a decent neighborhood, or a one or two bedroom in the ghetto.</p>
<p>My family’s house has one bathroom. For five people. Our furniture is from IKEA. Our car is a 15-year-old Dodge. We go out to dinner at decently nice restaurants once every six weeks or so. My clothes are from Gap. We vacation in the midwest. We go to public school. We have three computers–each of which is about five years old–for five people.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but I don’t consider that rich.
I realize I’m very privileged and I don’t want this to come off as complaining. I’m not saying I’m ungrateful, and I’m fully aware that many people have it far worse than me. But I also know people who have private jets, huge houses and second homes, wear designer clothes, go to Europe on vacation, go to private schools, and drive Lexuses and Mercedes. THAT’s what I consider rich.</p>
<p>Here is the distinction that needs to be made. </p>
<p>Just because you are upper class doesn’t mean you don’t need to budget, don’t have to work, and that you get everything you want. Upper class is a statistical term. If your family makes in the 6 figures then you are upper class. </p>
<p>Upper class doesn’t mean you are filthy rich and it does mean that you probably still need to work really hard for your money.</p>
<p>What defines middle class is extremely difficult.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Household income of 80k a year. Both working parents make 40k a year and have 3 kids to raise. Compared that to a single person who is making 60k a year. Don’t you for one second tell me the guy making 60k a year is so much poorer than the couple.</p></li>
<li><p>There’s a person who makes 40k a year as a recent 25-year old college graduate. He has his whole life in front of him. A person who is 60 years old is making 50k after having spent their whole life slowly going from 20k on up. Is that person really better off?</p></li>
<li><p>A person owns a small business and rakes in 200k a year in income. Yet most of that income then gets thrown away by paying for fixed and variable costs for their business. Is that person really better off than a salaried person who sells their labor power for 100k a year?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>And this is ignoring things like debt payments, location (rent, etc), and everything else. </p>
<p>You can’t crunch these numbers so easily. You can cite all the statistics you want, but even the best and brightest economists still fight amongst themselves fiercely about all this. Life is extremely complicated.</p>
<p>This is totally relative. At my boarding school, there was a kid who told me he often felt “poor.” His dad was a doctor who made like 700k a year. But at boarding school, he felt poor. People were talking about their 10 million dollar houses in the French Riviera, Aspen, Palm Springs, etc. At a different school, he would have been the “rich kid.” The sons and daughters of the billionaires stuck out so much that even the kids of top executives making $2/3 million a year felt poor. </p>
<p>There’s always someone who has more, so find value in other things.</p>
<p>Right, because your made up scenarios are soo much better and more reliable than trash statistics. And it’s not like they were specifically designed to prove your point or anything. Please, step down off your pedestal.</p>
<p>Oh, and by the way, if they’re spending 100k in expenses on their business, then those would be considered–get this-- business expenses and not included in their income.</p>
<p>They are willing to pay for the entirety of my college education, something which I greatly appreciate. Like I said before, I will take a lack of “shiny” material goods for the ability to start out my life debt free.</p>
<p>Note that I come from an Asian family, in which it is customary for parents to pay for all of their childrens education. In return, I will be expected to pay for the education of my children as well. To me, this makes far more sense than for someone to accumulate ~200K worth of school debt, and later in life, give their own children the same disadvantage to start off their career. In the end, both schools of thought will result in you paying for education, I just personally prefer paying for it when I can afford it.</p>
<p>It’s not a school of thought, it’s actually having the resources available to be able to afford to pay $50k per year. If you never make more than $60k per year you probably won’t be shelling out $200k for your kids’ education.</p>
<p>Right, but you will be getting federal and school financial aid in the forms of grants, specially at elite schools. You will simply pay what you can afford to pay.</p>
<p>Yup, this is me. My parents are willing to pay full freight for my college and grad school expenses. But luckily I get some shiny materialistic objects as well, albeit, not many.</p>
<p>I do think its very relative. Where I live I go to public school and I know a girl who got a Lamborghini for her 16th birthday and another girl who bought her boyfriend a two thousand dollar ping-pong table for her boyfriend’s birthday because “he really wanted a pin-pong table” and he couldn’t ask his parents because they were already getting him a car. I couldn’t imagine being in either of these situations so in comparison to them i would be considered poor. In comparison to someone from a third world country that is worrying about whether or not they’ll get the next meal I’d probably be considered rich.</p>
<p>can this thread like end now?
class structures are RELATIVE based on the cost of living in a particular area.
it’s all relative…there is no set amount…period.</p>
<p>Actually they aren’t made up, but commonly cited by people who show how absurd it is when people try to use statistics to mislead people in thinking about socioeconomic class. Most people who have no idea about how to read statistics easily get fooled by them and don’t understand what they really are saying, don’t take into account confounding factors, etc. You get off your pedestal first. </p>
<p>On the business point, my bad, you’re right on that one.</p>