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net worth, no question about it. using income as a proxy for "rich" makes no sense.
It may be at best a rough approximation. But to say it makes "no sense" is absurd.
Quote:
Originally Posted by le roi
so maybe it was just how i was raised... but i never thought of the word "rich" as referring to the top 20%.
$1.5 million net worth is just "wealthy." Those people are still in the middle class, just at the upper end.
Well, somebody certainly failed geometry. On what planet is "the top" also "the middle?"
If we consider the top 20% to be rich and the bottom 20% to be poor, then we still leave 60% of all the people in the middle class. That's about 10% too many.
I'm sure most rich people consider themselves upper middle-class.
Obama who is worth $12.5 million and makes $400k a year, do you think he thinks he is middle class? How about Nancy Pelosi who is worth $35Million and makes $193,400 per year thinks she is middle class?
How about a recently graduated doctor who makes $200k a year, has school debt up to his ass, just starting his family. Do you think they are rich (wealthy)? and deserve to be punished because of your hatred and jealousy of the rich?
It may be at best a rough approximation. But to say it makes "no sense" is absurd.
it is worse than useless, it is misleading and wrong.
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Well, somebody certainly failed geometry.
actually i think that's statistics or demography, not geometry.
Quote:
On what planet is "the top" also "the middle?"
the one where the 90th percentile has more in common with the 50th percentile than the 99th percentile.
Quote:
If we consider the top 20% to be rich and the bottom 20% to be poor, then we still leave 60% of all the people in the middle class. That's about 10% too many.
"middle class" does not have to be 50% of the population.
Group: ** Mean Household Income ** Mean Household Net Worth ** Mean Household Financial (non house) Wealth
Top 1 percent ** $1,318,200 ** $16,439,400 ** $15,171,600
Top 20 percent ** $226,200 ** $2,061,600 ** $1,719,800
60th-80th percentile ** $72,000 ** $216,900 ** $100,700
40th-60th percentile ** $41,700** $61,000 ** $12,200
Bottom 40 percent ** $17,300 ** -$10,600 ** -$14,800
It's actually even a better surrogate the more I look at it. Not perfect, but not bad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by petch751
What if you are young and just starting out, paying off school debt you make good money but didn't have time to build wealth, you are screwed under Obama.
Nonsense. If you're just starting out and you make a quarter million a year, you are perfectly poised to accumulate a vast amount of wealth over your remaining anticipated lifetime.
I for one can only chuckle at how big a whiner a person needs to be to complain that they are screwed... when they are actually making a quarter million dollars a year while still in their 20s.
Quote:
Originally Posted by petch751
If you were at it for many, many years you could have built wealth.
That's the way it's supposed to work. What about it do you find objectionable?
Obama who is worth $12.5 million and makes $400k a year, do you think he thinks he is middle class? How about Nancy Pelosi who is worth $35Million and makes $193,400 per year thinks she is middle class?
both of them are rich
especially pelosi
but then, so what? being rich isn't the problem, it is when the government gives special preferential treatment to the rich that it becomes a problem.
Obama who is worth $12.5 million and makes $400k a year, do you think he thinks he is middle class?
No.
Quote:
Originally Posted by petch
How about Nancy Pelosi who is worth $35Million and makes $193,400 per year thinks she is middle class?
No.
Quote:
Originally Posted by petch
How about a recently graduated doctor who makes $200k a year, has school debt up to his ass, just starting his family.
Yes, for now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by petch
Do you think they are rich (wealthy)? and deserve to be punished because of your hatred and jealousy of the rich?
Yes, for now. But if they prove to be even the least bit competent at managing their finances, they will be rich... pretty much regardless of how they are taxed.
but then, so what? being rich isn't the problem, it is when the government gives special preferential treatment to the rich that it becomes a problem.
Yes especially special treatment to themselves, the political elite. Does anyone really think that Pelosi would be screaming tax the rich if she was targeted? Pelosi opposes a cut in congressional pay because it would diminish the dignity. What do you think she would be screaming if you went after her wealth?
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