Definition of Rich (Obama, school, party, financial)
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What is a liberals definition of rich? Are we talking net worth, gross income, adjusted gross income, or taxable income? Sorry to bring in those terms but every American who files a tax return has to report those numbers (except for net worth) annually.
Income is not the primary measure. Wealth is. I would consider anyone with mean household financial (non-home) wealth greater than $1.5 million to be "rich." That's about the top 20%.
Income is not the primary measure. Wealth is. I would consider anyone with mean household financial (non-home) wealth greater than $1.5 million to be "rich." That's about the top 20%.
Obama who says "tax the rich" defined the rich as a single making $200k and a married couple making $250k a year. That is gross income (before taxes).
What is a liberals definition of rich? Are we talking net worth, gross income, adjusted gross income, or taxable income?
net worth, no question about it. using income as a proxy for "rich" makes no sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HistorianDude
Income is not the primary measure. Wealth is. I would consider anyone with mean household financial (non-home) wealth greater than $1.5 million to be "rich." That's about the top 20%.
so maybe it was just how i was raised... but i never thought of the word "rich" as referring to the top 20%. Those would be the people i'd refer to as "wealthy." And there is a cavernous gap between wealthy and rich.
Rich, to me, is an extreme word. it is reserved for people who fly in private jets, own huge yachts, could afford to drive the most expensive (e.g. $200,000) cars, and own the most expensive real estate.
To me, even the "1%" (net worth of about 7 or 8 million) doesn't scratch the surface of "rich". the people in the forbes 500 would qualify, though.
Obama who says "tax the rich" defined the rich as a single making $200k and a married couple making $250k a year.
Given the difficulty in actually measuring wealth, that's probably as good a surrogate as any other. The mean household income of that same top quintile is $226,200 per household.
But income is at best a rough estimate since some people with high income have little accumulated wealth, and some very wealthy people (thing Mitt Romney) recognize very little of their annual increase in wealth as income.
But you can only measure what you can actually measure.
Given the difficulty in actually measuring wealth, that's probably as good a surrogate as any other. The mean household income of that same top quintile is $226,200 per household.
But income is at best a rough estimate since some people with high income have little accumulated wealth, and some very wealthy people (thing Mitt Romney) recognize very little of their annual increase in wealth as income.
But you can only measure what you can actually measure.
It is not a good surrogate. 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. If you were at it for many, many years you could have built wealth.
It is not a good surrogate. What if you just started out, paying off school debt, and didn't have time to build wealth. If you were at it for many, many years you could have built wealth but not if you are just starting out.
You can make $200k which is very good income but you are screwed under Obama. The wealthy will work around it.
so i disagree strongly with Obama's contention that $250k/yr constitutes "rich."
but let's also be clear that the opposing party -- the Republicans -- want to eliminate capital gains and inheritance taxes, which are the government's primary means of taxing the (legitimately) rich.
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