Slate is running an article right now about how deluded many pundits and politicians are about what constitutes rich. But it’s really us Americans who are deluded.

I personally think that rich should be pretty easy to define. If you’re in the top 80% of income earners in the United States my thought is you’re rich. If you’re in the top 90% you’re filthy rich. That’s just based on how I feel about percentages. I think most people would say those numbers seem fair if they don’t see what the median income is for someone in the 80% and 90% brackets.

The Census Bureau earlier this week reported that the median household income was $50,223 in 2007—up slightly from the last year but still below the 1999 peak. So a household that earned $250,000 made five times the median. In fact, as this chart shows, only 2.245 million U.S. households, the top 1.9 percent, had income greater than $250,000 in 2007. (About 20 percent of households make more than $100,000.)

Shocking, eh? So over $100k is rich. But that doesn’t buy a new cellphone every six months, and a lexus for your kid, and a million dollar house, so how is that rich? Amazing how our culture has managed to change wealthy into something so ridiculously unattainable. We feel poor because there’s so much great stuff to spend our money on.

Although we really need to start agreeing that we should be able to tax the hell out of people making more than 5 times the median income. It’s ridiculous that we would think that people can raise a family a 4 on $50k/year and yet howl when it’s suggested that people who make 5 times that be taxed a little more heavily.

---

Comments

Ashley

2008-08-29T20:25:21.000Z

It’s hard to comment on this post without feeling like a spoiled brat but… 100k does not feel rich to me. Yes, I am typing this message on an iPhone and soon I will leave work in a 16k car but given the price of Austin housing and groceries plus childcare (not to mention that ghastly student loan) we are still carefull with our extra money. You are right “rich” to me is something that’s seems unattainable. The people whose homes pock the hills along 360 - they are the rich ones in my mind. Yes, 250k is a lot to earn and they should pony up some taxes.

Tim (http://www.loadedguntheory.com)

2008-08-29T22:35:46.000Z

Yeah, I know, it doesn’t feel that rich to me either. But it is. The fact that 80% of Americans make less than that says it’s rich to me.

Kate (http://katiekatworld.blogspot.com)

2008-09-06T22:42:15.000Z

I think it has everything to do with what feels rich, not just a number. I agree with the article that feeling rich has a lot to do with comparison to your neighbors. I live a mile from River Oaks, so maybe that’s part of why it’s so easy to not feel rich. I feel richer the days I drive past the shotgun houses that are a mile in the other direction. Now that we have a car payment again, I am feeling a little freakier about money. We’re fine. We’re better than fine. We lost a lot of time when we were out of the workforce a few years ago, but we’re still doing really well, especially in comparison. I can complain about the relative salaries of teachers vs. other professionals, especially long-term (the top of my pay scale with a PhD is less than Ryan makes now and he makes less than industry standard), but then I can go spend time with the clerks at school. They’re maybe making 20K. Maybe. I do our taxes and to me, that number says “rich.” But do I feel rich? No, I do not. I’ve been working on that.