LOL totally not surprised there.

Also, we literally had this thread already. You embarrassed yourself sufficiently prostrating yourself to our Galtian overlords.

A bit in that I picked full time servant to troll people who think someone who can afford a Lexus is rich. But yeah rich people can afford servants imo.

I agree, but again it's kind of silly to be talking about $250K in the first place – since nobody's proposed a plan that will raise taxes on them.

We should pick some number that actually will be significantly affected by Obama's tax plan. But it's kind of hard because you're talking $350K paying $4000 more, $450K paying $8000 more, etc. You really don't get to a point where you start feeling sorry for those people and thinking the extra tax amount is going to make a dent in their spending.

In b4 we flip over to - yeah but that's just where it starts.

I embarrassed myself by having a different definition of rich than you? lol?

When you only describe rich as living some MTV celeb lifestyle TV show facsimile, then sure, making a quarter million dollars a year aint rich.

But when you compare it to the average household it clearly is.

lol I'm not saying it isn't a lot more than most people make. But having a fulltime housekeeper and leasing a couple of BMW 740s and sending kids to private schools is hardly an MTV celeb lifestyle. A family would need to pull down maybe 500-600k for that sort of lifestyle.

I mean 250k is like a senior engineer married to a schoolteacher.

In the context we are having these discussions, yeah, pretty much?

Again, we literally had this whole thread already:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/41...s/rich-881925/

Does it matter to you that there is literally no reason why we're talking about $250K, other than someone picked it as an arbitrary number? No one who makes $250K will see their taxes go up. People who make $300K will barely see their taxes go up.

lol why should me having a different definition of rich than you be embarrassing to me?

Is someone who is 6'4" tall? Is someone who is 70 old?

As I said I don't know anything about Obama's tax plans so it for sure does not matter to me

Of course. What does that have to do with anything?

lol calling someone who is 6'4" tall, they would have to jump to touch the rim of a basketball hoop

Um.....OK.

The "who is rich and who is middle class?" debate is so dumb. It's as if there's no better way of determining what taxes should be besides sorting people into imaginary clubs. If you're lucky enough to be sorted into the cool people's club you're immune from further beatings because no-one wants to beat up a cool person (even if you're the uncoolest person in the cool club), but if you just miss the cut-off you have to go hang out in the library with all the nerds, making you an acceptable target.

In any case, one reason to not classify 250k as rich is that when people are asked questions like "Should the rich pay more in taxes?", I very much doubt many of them are thinking anything like "Well, any sensible definition of rich would include people in the top 5% of incomes", even if that is a "rational" definition of "rich". The mental images most people have when they think of "rich people" are very much Paris Hiltons and John D. Rockefellers, and those are primarily the emotional drives behind their answer. If you were to instead ask something "Should doctors pay more in taxes?", you'd likely get far less support, because it's not doctors who people visualise as the "overprivileged rich".

Is someone with 500 posts on 2+2 a high volume poster?

Most people making less than 60k a year would consider themselves rich if they made 250k a year. Unless u live in a city like San Fran, NYC etc...you are balling with 250k a year

No, they're not. A family of four making 250k is upper middle class. A family of four making 50k is poor.

My dad and step mom make about 55k and do pretty alright (2 cars, nice house, big yard, etc.). He's probably screwed when it comes to retirement but I don't ask about such things =\

Yes but they have to do their own laundry and probably drive domestic cars. Horrifying!

My dad most certainly does not do his own laundry and my step mom drives a Toyota!

I live in Iowa as well, and even in Iowa, 55k is like... nothing for a dual income. I'm sure it's survivable, but man you don't get nice vacations, electronics, cars, etc. It's bare bones living.

http://www.iowaworkforce.org/trends/mediania.html

Looks like more than half of Iowa is doing worse than "bare bones living"

My dad has a giant TV, a computer, a laptop, a garage full of tools and they just visited me in Florida while on vacation. 55k in Iowa is definitely liveable, in a comfortable way, if you do it right.