Of course this is true. But the family could very well be living a lifestyle that I would not classify as rich.

Well, have fun with that. A "lifestyle also wouldn't be classified as rich" by you if a person spent all of his money building a 10:1 replica of the Palace of Versailles out of gold.

Of course it would be. See my buying a cribs house post above.

Your definition of rich is so narrow as to be laughable.

I mean, that's what's so great about this thread and this forum. I post about how LOL it is that people like Todd Henderson are so out of touch, and even people who've clearly read the Brad DeLong article explaining the psychological factors that lead people to say utterly ******ed things like

etc.

I mean, I couldn't do better if I tried. "Rich people have no conception of how well off they are" being followed by rich people disagreeing with me by displaying no conception of how well off they are? Samsonh accusing people of envying the rich(samsonh, from your writings here there is no way you make more than $250k unless your dad got you that job)?

Tear to my eye.

People who make $25,000/yr would be considered rich by some. People who make $250,000+ are, obviously, not considered rich by others. It's all relative, man.


Personally, I'd just go with something along the lines of "rich people have more money than those in their social circle," and leave it at that.

To recap: on $250K/year I could: be sole support for a family of five, live within a one hour commute of Manhattan, eat well, drive a nice car, and celebrate Christmas every year by lighting $50K on fire.

According to mjkidd, I am not rich.

Oh, what a beautiful world!

Well, no. We were talking about what qualifies as rich, but whatever.

Fair enough. Maybe you should go start a campaign in Loudoun County that all of those people are living beyond their means. I don't know what to tell you.

Fair enough, and this seems pretty reasonable. I was never arguing (or not trying to argue) that there aren't some select places where housing prices are incredibly expensive, but if you're going down to the town/neighborhood level, your scope is getting entirely way too specific to have a meaningful conversation about the topic at hand.

$250K is enough to live extremely well in Manhattan, but maybe not on the Upper East Side. Maybe there are some parts of UES where you can still live very well on that, but maybe there are specific blocks you can't. Or maybe there aren't, but on specific blocks, there might be buildings you can't afford to live in, all the way down to there being one specific apartment you can't afford, but that's not what we're talking about.

WTF does your commute have to do with whether or not you're rich?

This is a terrible definition of rich.

This is an OK description of people who would describe themselves as rich.

Those two things are not the same.

Fly,

What income for a family of 5 living in NYC would you consider "rich"?

Why does it matter where they live?

mjkidd,

What income for a family of 5 living in NYC would you consider "rich"?

Please keep in mind that dinner at Per Se is going to run you $300+ per person, and that's not including wine.

I'd say probably 300k or so might be the average cut off.

Mostly because identical houses could cost 2-3 times as much in certain places.

Which is completely irrelevant to whether or not someone is rich.

I mean, I know we're going in circles at this point, but are you still saying that two people who make the same amount of money, but one blows all their money on an expensive house and the other doesn't, suddenly one is rich and the other isn't?

Haha!

Wall Street guy to Obama: When are you going to stop whacking us with a stick? We feel like a pinata!

Jon Stewart: I don't know...maybe when the ****ing CANDY COMES OUT. How about that?

If for example the houses are identical, yes.

Identical how? Like in the same city?

Well then what if the houses are identical, and would cost the same amount of money, but for the fact that one decides to furnish it with Ikea furniture, and the other does with gold-plated Gorilla paws?

You've got to be kidding me. So we're $50k off? A pathetic $4,000 a month? More like $2500 after taxes. That's the cutoff? That's a mere 3 Acuras! That means I'll have to drive one three days a week.

I mean, up the thread a bit we were talking about being free from worry money, like "quit tomorrow and live comfortably" money.

There has to be some cut off. It is obviously an arbitrary judgment.

No, I mean physically identical but in different cities.

Consumption of luxury goods would factor into my definition of "rich".

And how is a nice house in a nice city not a luxury good, again?

I definitely remember the part of Down and Out in Paris and London when Orwell had to contribute less than the maximum to his Roth IRA one month because his daughter invited her roommate at USC to Aspen with them without checking first. Heartbreaking.

Not everything that is "not rich" is poor.