Are rich politicians middle class?

Question

I don't understand why everyone thinks they are middle class. I remember watching an interview with a politician (name escapes me at this time) and they were on the issue of middle class. He then goes on to say he is middle class and the middle class income is $250,000 a year. Do most politicians consider themselves middle class??

To me the poor families can be defined by not making enough money to pay off all the bills with one job. cant afford nice place.

The lower income families make just enough to barely pay the bills, food and bare necessities. cant afford nice place

Lower middle class make enough money to pay the bills, food and have some spare change left over to buy a cd. can barely afford one step up from the ghetto

Middle class makes enough money to pay the bills, food and have enough money left over for some new clothes (at a cheap store most likely) have a car payment. Decent roof over their head (depending on location) but not very fancy.

How do you define classes

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More like without class, classless, lacking class, have no class, absent of class, devoid of class, Flush the toilet in 08, I can see the t-shirts now. "



That made me lol.

Answer 1

I think it depends on how you define middle class in America, apart from the income distribution statistics. Often, people who make $250,000 a year consider themselves middle class—upper middle class, but still part of the middle class partially because of their backgrounds. People who are earning that amount of money, through working, may not have accumulated lots of assets and may come from backgrounds that are very solidly middle class. They don’t consider themselves part of the rich or very rich upper classes because those individuals are considered to have, at least, tens of millions of dollars in assets and/or come from old money families. It depends on how you look at things.

That’s the way I see it anyway, based on experience.

Answer 2

Most politicians probably do consider themselves to be "middle class", if only because most other people consider themselves to be as such as well. If class is defined by wealth, than anyone could theoretically justify themselves as being "middle class", except for the top and bottom 1% of society. I don't really know who came up with this definition of class, but it makes little or no sense, IMO.

I'm a Marxist, and use Marxian definitions of class when I talk about it, so what I would consider the "middle class" would mostly be self-employed people, small shop owners, and possibly independent farmers.

Answer 3

"I may look middle class. But I'm not. My boat is sinking fast." -- Mark McClellan (see link for article.)

I agree with your definitions and add that the true middle class was yesterday's white collar class but as we've moved away from being an industrial economy that characteristic is no longer easy to recognize.

However, the existence of a middle class (USA) is a myth. Everyone -with the possjble exception of the 1% elite and the homeless, completely destitute - define themselves as "middle class." This gives the illusion that the middle-class is growing and that all is well with our economy. The reality is that the middle class is shrinking! The emergence of just 2 classes -the wealthy and the poor- is what we are experiencing.

Answer 4

Well the last I looked the average national income was like 47k dollars. Now if you made that amount and lived in the midwest you would probably be doing good, that amount in NYC or LA or sometihng like that would probably be just getting by.

But that is a decent bench mark for the range of middle class and your desription of what you can do seems pretty good in describing it.

250k is definitely alot higher than the middle class range that I perceive.

Answer 5

$250k per year is not middle class by any reasonable nationwide measure.

I measure income class levels by the IRS and BLS quintiles. I also look at what is deemed the poverty level for the lowest level.

$250k per year easily puts the person you note in the top 5% (I'm estimating from memory since I don't feel like looking it up right now)

Top 20% starts around $75-80k per year. Although I would consider folks earning up to say 120k middle class. Also, one has to consider where people live. $120k in Kansas buys alot more than 120k in California or NYC.

Answer 6

Al 3. the wealthy have their tax loopholes and and funds to purchase off politicians. The undesirable proceed to crank out youngsters they could't pay for yet anticipate anybody else to. the middle classification has busted this is *** to carry the burden for anybody else. The unions were very helpful years in the past yet they drove market in a overseas us of a by utilising demanding too a lot for his or her workers.

Answer 7

well...this is difficult to give a class defined by income...it just doesn't work...although someone makes 34k a year...depending on where they live...its a good salary or not enough. Based on a family of 4, I think a combined income of 75k-100k is considered middle class....75k is the everage combined wage in the U.S. I think anything below 75k to 50k is considered lower middle class...anything below that is poverty. I think anything above 100k combined income should not be recieving tax cuts...infact they should be taxed more....

Answer 8

The poverty line for a family of four is ~$20,000 annual income... Find me a head-of household that can feed and clothe a family of four with anything less than $30,000 a year and i'll vote for him/her to be in charge of the FED..

Answer 9

By definition the rich are not middle class. They are upper class.

Answer 10

no but they need the middle class to win to payoff the other rich cats who fronted their marketing campaign to convince the middle class people to vote for this poser.