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Parenting
Poll: Classes...
What income = middle class? = upper class?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Poll: Classes...
agreed... I'm from the south originally. bff has a 3000sq ft house on an acre for around $250K down there... here, we couldn't get a house for $250K... the fixer upper down the road is still in the $400K range. I saw a 2 bedroom condo for $280K.
This is interesting (from ehow.com)
U.S. Census Quintiles
The U.S. Census Bureau breaks down the reported household incomes into quintiles (or five divisions). In 2007, the middle quintile reported an income range of $36,000 to $57,660. Many economists and politicians alike believe this range is too narrow to encompass the true middle class of America. Therefore a more generous range would include the middle three quintiles, which makes the range from $19,178 to $91,705. This range accounts for 60% of all households, and with the lower end balancing near the poverty threshold, this range may not be completely accurate.Median Income
The 2008 census reported the medium income as $50,233. The PewResearch Center suggests that the middle income range is 75 percent to 150 percent of the median income. This makes the current middle class income range $37,675 to $75,350. To most, this range seems small and surveys conducted by the PewResearch Center find that many who fall outside this range still consider themselves middle class.Economist Views
Economist Gary Burtless of Brookings Institution indicates that the middle class encompasses from one-half the median income to twice the median income. This makes the middle class income range $25,117 to $100,466.MIT economist Frank Levy believes that those in the middle class have enough money to afford the basic building blocks of a good life including a house, a car and money to pay necessary bills. He suggests that families in their prime earning years are middle class if they fall between $30,000 and $90,000.
...He suggests that families in their prime earning years are middle class if they fall between $30,000 and $90,000...
um...no. I don't think so. It's a huge difference between 30K and 90K. And here, you're struggling (if you own a home) if you make 90K. Renting, yeah, i can see, but not owning a home, paying taxes, cars, school, bills, etc.
This to me is a prime example of it is all about the area you live in. Where I live you can buy a new 3 bedroom 2 bath house for 130-180K. This makes it pretty easy to live comfortably off 90K. However I would not consider us high class and when we are in our "prime" earning time of life we will be making well over what is considered middle class. To say someone earning 100k is high class is funny because that would mean someone earning 1mil a year also high class, and these people would live vastly different lifestyles.
ditto... we were talking about this at work the other day... many of the full time nurses are making around $80K a year and do not own a home. I work parttime (0.6/FT, about to hopefully move to a job that is 0.75/FT), dh is a college professor and we cannot afford a home here right now. but it's not just the house cost, it's the property taxes too.. here, we'd easily spend thousands in property tax each year... my ILs aren't even paying a few hundred in property tax in southern louisiana. then our car ins/renters ins tripled moving here... groceries cost more. everything does... city taxes... but man is there so much more to offer here than in other places we've lived. and dh's college freshmen who went to public school here, vs students elsewhere, are SO ahead of the game. for us, we'd rather our kids get the education... we can just save up for our retirement condo in Boca.