Reply #163: This will be very arbitrary, but...

[Yollam]

If we're talking about families with kids, living in an average US housing market, I would define folks making under $20K as "poor"

$20K~$50K is "working class" the largest group -( often masquerade as middle class via overuse of risky mortgages and credit cards)

$50~100K is bourgeoisie "middle class"

$ 100K~$150K is affluent

anyone above that is filthy rich, but most won't admit to that.


Sure these are arbitrary, and class is more than income. On a $100K income you can get a tract house in Marin, or a palace in west Texas. There are the cultural aspects, (which you touched on with your anecdote about the friends who eat organic sushi vs. the friends who blow their money on cigarettes - both are unnecessary items, IMO)




You're right about one thing, mondo. The attributes the OP ascribes to the middle class are certainly applicable to a great many people in all the other classes. But people at the bottom have very little breathing room to worry about anybody else's problems. Somehow, self-centered behavior starts becoming obnoxious when people are buying their third Hummer or Plasma TV, and STILL couldn't give a crap about anybody else and bitch about their taxes and the 'parasites on welfare'.