Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Of course this doesn’t literally happen, but what does happen is that over a lifetime of productive investment (not necessarily financial), one's achievements become recognized, and yield all sorts of perks and recognitions. Graduate students slave in the lab, but if they successfully graduate and score academic positions and earn tenure, eventually they reach a point of expending comparatively little labor, while delegating most duties and reaping the rewards (such as publications) from other people's labor. Persons who successfully market themselves as "experts" get invited to review-panels, interviews, speaking-engagements. They get free dinners and expense-paid trips. Large (by whatever measure) investors get offers from their brokerage-firms to get into IPOs before trading begins. And so forth.
The point is that if we're talented, lucky and well-positioned, then a smattering of concerted effort at the initial stages leads to cascading benefits at the later stages. We literally get free-stuff, not because we're directly contributing but because we've established a reputation of doing so. Privilege doesn't mean that you're rewarded for being good; privilege means that you're rewarded just for being you.
Airline miles and hotel-points are just an example, and perhaps a shoddy one on my part. A better analogy would be – running with the Starbucks example – not free coffee upon presenting a card stamped with 10 prior coffee purchases, but a case where if say Numberfive is walking into the corner Starbucks, upon apprising this fact, the employees would immediately yell to each other, "Look, Numberfive is approaching! Everybody, get on your best behavior, and make sure to start brewing his favorite coffee!" And when you arrive, people who've never met you would effusively greet you: "Welcome, dear Sir, to our establishment; how may I best serve you, Sir?"
Many professional sports players are drastically underpaid in their first playing years and drastically overpaid in their last playing years.
There is a lot of truth to what you said although it is not universal.
There are degrees that will get you a 100k job after graduation at the Bachelor of Science level and Nursing is one of them.
Not everything is made overseas and some of us still covet Made in USA... even if it comes second hand...
My first car is 100% made in USA and I still have it... it was built in 1930 and except for a few raw materials like gum rubber for tires... it's American made.
Also... some of us don't have cable boxes, cell phones and still watch TV on made in America television and wash/dry our clothes in Made in USA appliances and own Made in USA refrigerators... albeit most is ancient by today's standards... they do the job today as well as the day they were made.
I manage residential housing and Christmas always requires extra trash pickup... and most of what fill the dumpsters has been sourced from overseas....
About 6 weeks later we still need extra trash as half that stuff has broken and/or no longer wanted.
One of my pet peeves is bicycles... there was a time when a bike was a kids most valuable possession... now they are disposable... mostly broken and sometimes just neglected.
When minimum wage was a $1.65 here a top of the line kids Schwinn was $100...
Now minimum wage in my city is $12.25 and kids bikes are $60 or less at Toys R Us.
Last year there was a boy of 7 that I watched put his bike in the trash... looked OK to me except both tires were flat... turned out this is why he was getting rid of it... his Mom was going to buy him a better one without flat tires..
Honest to gosh... all the tires needed was air... the family was clueless.
It's things like this that I find scary when thinking of the future.
Just terrible. Our throwaway society. I don't like buying a lot of stuff nor do I like buying stuff and then throwing it out until I've gotten every last bit of use I can get from it. I hope my kids never learn to live like the 7 year old boy you described.
It really depends. They can.Traveling nurses make more, working overnight's will get you significantly more, and there is usually OT pretty readily available, which can get you more. But for standard starting pay in most moderate COL areas in the US I think they typically start based on a 36 hour work week ~$45-55k.
Travelers make *more* usually because they are not paying health and other deductions local staff nurses have deducted from their paychecks. Same as with most other temporary workers sent to any business or whatever. The agency may or may not provided health and other benefits but that is another story.
Most everyone would make *more* if your employer didn't deduct various benefits from your wages each pay period.
Shift differential various by facility and type. Some hospitals are good to generous with evenings, nights, weekends and major holiday differentials, others not so much. Some nursing homes barely offer anything or nothing.
Overtime; again it depends conditions on the ground locally. Some places are happy to hand it out like candy, others tell nurses they need to be finished up and leave on time. If there are call outs or whatever causing a staffing shortage it is becoming normal in some places to take a long hard look at the patient census; where possible work will be spread out among the remaining staff instead of offering overtime.
It baffles me as to why in American culture nearly everyone self-identifies as "middle class". Those who are below it, refuse to accede to reality, clinging to pride, and insisting (if only to themselves) that they have credible capacity to rise, and natural right in doing so. Those who are above it, insist on self-effacing humility, as if apologetic for their wealth, or perhaps envious of those still higher up, and consequently regarding themselves as being merely "middle".
There is always somebody higher and somebody lower, regardless of what we mean by these terms, or whether humans can ever quantitatively sized up. There is always fretting and worry over money, even amongst billionaires. And even the most desperately poor in America rarely worry about having to drink water contaminated with dysentery, or getting slaughtered in the night by marauders attacking their village. So in that sense, we're all nominally middle class. So what?
Reversing the laments made by several posters in this thread, I would assert that no civilization has been able to thrive and endure WITHOUT extensive exploitation of what amounts to slave-labor, whether we honestly call it as such, or dress it up in fibs and euphemisms. A stable society resembles the iceberg: eight ninths are below the water-line. The instability of mid-20th-century America, or of modern Western Europe, is in attempting to elevate the iceberg beyond its natural submersion.
Nevertheless, historical progress is not concentrated exclusively at the top. There is some diffusion towards universal improvement, perhaps not literally as "trickle down", but through shared benefits such as good roads or clean air. Slavery is never abolished, but over time it becomes less onerous and less brutal. And yet, it can never go away. If "the workers" revolt and overthrow their oppressors, very soon new oppressors will arise, often more rapacious and unscrupulous than the old.
The inevitability of slavery is all the more reason for those persons in comparatively comfortable conditions to cease the tiresome pretense of being middle-class.
Quote:
It baffles me as to why in American culture nearly everyone self-identifies as "middle class". Those who are below it, refuse to accede to reality, clinging to pride, and insisting (if only to themselves) that they have credible capacity to rise, and natural right in doing so. Those who are above it, insist on self-effacing humility, as if apologetic for their wealth, or perhaps envious of those still higher up, and consequently regarding themselves as being merely "middle".
Yes pretty good run down (your post reposted below). Although do you notice that Obama and Democrats claimed he was going after the rich then went after the Above Median Wealth Class, the people with the least power. These people are typically the middle class that climbed out of the median but still working like slaves.
Quote:
The Above Median Wealth Class
Those earning over $250K per household up to $400K. (Stable Family Business, Individual Small City/Community enterprise, and various Professions within the localized community).
Community/City Wealth Class:
Those earning 400K upwards per house hold, based on income derived from the localized community and within the city or general Smaller Metro.
Wealth and Influence in the City and Regional Areas.
Those earning $1million, to $10 million, in the localized community and the regional metro - with some out of metro income avenues.
Wealth and Power in the City and Regional Areas.
Those earning $5 million, to $100 million (+), in the localized community and the regional metro - with some out of metro income avenues.
It baffles me as to why in American culture nearly everyone self-identifies as "middle class". Those who are below it, refuse to accede to reality, clinging to pride, and insisting (if only to themselves) that they have credible capacity to rise, and natural right in doing so. Those who are above it, insist on self-effacing humility, as if apologetic for their wealth, or perhaps envious of those still higher up, and consequently regarding themselves as being merely "middle".
Most upper middle class came from lower or solid middle classes and retain middle class values. They work very hard and have a skill that they can demand higher income. Because they are high income but powerless, they are targets for lower class jealousy who then support the government grab. These people mistakenly believe they are going after the really rich but the truth is they support high taxes on upper income but not wealthy people.
Some of those people with their middle class thinking will "play" rich when they are not, taking on more debt and remain in the rat race but at a higher level. While other people learn and progress into thinking like the rich and put their money to work for them slowly moving into the Investor class where they earn investment incomes where they, if successful, eventually do not have to exchange their time for money. A lot of people believe as they are told for political agenda's that rich people are handed a boatload of money. Some yes but most no. It's people who (despite the odds and government grabs) use their money wisely.
It's how you view money, a poor man's view, a middle class view or a rich mans' view.
The Poor: Spend everything, think day to day,
Middle Class: As they become successful, buy liabilities, increase debt, rat trap. Think month to month
The Rich: Buy assets that produce income to pay for liabilities. They plan, think long term. Value their time the most.
It baffles me as to why in American culture nearly everyone self-identifies as "middle class". Those who are below it, refuse to accede to reality, clinging to pride, and insisting (if only to themselves) that they have credible capacity to rise, and natural right in doing so. Those who are above it, insist on self-effacing humility, as if apologetic for their wealth, or perhaps envious of those still higher up, and consequently regarding themselves as being merely "middle".
If you make $200k a year before taxes but have to go to work every day plus work a second job, work OT, weekends, holidays, get calls in the middle of the night, rarely getting a day off, are you rich?
If you and your wife both work full time, both working OT, nights and weekends with a combined income of $200k a year before taxes, lots of debt, very little if any in investments, are you rich?
If you and your wife both work full time with a combined income of $200k a year before taxes, very little if any in investments, are you rich?
In the above cases my answer is no, you are high income. In two of the above cases it takes 2 people to make that income yet government only increases the definition of rich with 2 people by $50k, why is that? If I make $50K-$100K a year from investments but do not have to go to work. I would consider myself middle class lifestyle but rich.
To define high income as rich is not telling the whole story. It is a play on people who don't understand money and the definition of rich. It is nothing but a spin to get you to support an agenda for taking more money from hard working Americans and funneling that money to the government to waste. Did you notice any people brought out of poverty because of it?
Most upper middle class came from lower or solid middle classes and retain middle class values. They work very hard but have a skill that they can demand higher income. Because they are high income but powerless, they are targets for lower class jealousy who then support the government grab and think they are going after the rich resulting in the government grab from upper income but not wealthy people.
So what's your definition of "upper middle class"? $100K up to 5%-ers? If you're single, make $200K, and take the standard deduction, your effective tax rate on Federal income taxes is about 23%. If you're married with a couple of kids, have a combined income of $250K, max out your 401(k)s, and take the traditional upper middle class writeoffs like state income taxes, mortgage interest, and property taxes, your effective tax rate is about 20%.
This "government grab" is a huge steaming pile of rhetoric. You have to be making serious income in the top-1% to be feeling much tax sting and that's not "upper middle class".
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
