Why is the bulk of the top 20%, "the middle class"? How did everyone outside of the top 2% become

[TheKentuckian]

"the middle"?

[Hello_Kitty]

1. The stuff in the bill that supposedly goes to the middle and working class

Seems to skew toward the top, doesn't it? Look at the payroll tax cut. A person making $106K or more wasn't eligible for the Making Work Pay tax credit. Now they get over $2K from the SS tax cut. I know plenty of people in that bracket. They're not going to spend the money. They're going to sock it away in savings or retirement accounts. Meanwhile the trading of MWP for the payroll holiday means people making less than $20K will have slightly smaller paychecks. Take money out of the pockets of the lowest wage earners and call it stimulus. Brilliant.

[TheKentuckian]

2. The cuts for the bottom 40% that desperately needs resources are token

and pure cover to get money to the top 20% as always.

[RKP5637]

3. It's the American Dream. Take from the poor, give to the rich! n/t

[baldguy]

4. Because, people making $100k/yr have more in common with people making $30k/yr & less

Than they do with people making $1 mil/yr & more.

They just won't admit it.

[zipplewrath]

7. That's an excellent point

A someone who is in roughly the top 12%, I'm always amazed at the fact that I am included in talks of tax cuts. Personally, I think I should be grouped more with the "upper middle" or whomever we want to call it and go back to the Clinton era taxes. But I will say, that in many ways, I have had vastly more in common with folks much further down the scale than those up it. Income can be fleeting, and even at my salary level, I must remain employed, and insured, or I will quickly lose everything I have. As much as I'm worth, my off spring would not be "trust fund babies". And I realize that I can never save enough money to be truly "independent" of a social safety net, especially as the cost of health care continues to rise at unsupportable levels.

That curve is not "linear" and the economic difference between me and Mr. 50% isn't nearly as large as it is between me and Mr. 5%.

[baldguy]

15. If only people understood the L-curve.

http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008/11/04/income-distribution-animation/

http://www.lcurve.org/

[Rex]

13. You are SPOT ON!

"They just won't admit it." :thumbsup:

[fascisthunter]

5. how? Just as the right wing became centrist

[hfojvt]

6. beats me, but I always have arguments on DU about that too

supposedly all those people making $80,000 - $250,000 are living in California, New Jersey, NYC, Washington DC and other really expensive urban areas, and those poor working stiffs are just barely getting by.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

10. That's exactly it.

The Washington Post did an article just this past Sunday (I believe) on how far $250,000/year actually gets you for a family of 4. The result? In Washington, DC it actually puts you in the red without coming anywhere near spending lavishly.

[hfojvt]

14. except it is amazing how many people live in those same urban areas

on so much less.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

17. Have you seen their living conditions?

They live like friggin rabbits. It's inhuman.

[stray cat]

8. the rich is anyone who makes more money than me?

those making 20,000 a year are rich compared to many in the world and in the US

[TheKentuckian]

11. If you are in the top 20% you are not in any reasonable middle.

It isn't about me. If I was in the top 20% then I'd be closer to the top than the middle.

Wake me up when the rest of the world pays taxes into our pool and must function within our cost of living.

You know good and well the rest of the world is a red herring when we are discussing US tax structure.

There is no place in the country other than small communities where being in the top 20% is not doing better than the vast majority.

[tk2kewl]

9. its the new math

[Horse with no Name]

12. It's that magical framing that makes Bubba think "he" is the one that "we" are after

He never realizes he isn't even on the radar to get something GOOD--only the wealthiest Americans get that.
But, the republican framing makes him BELIEVE he is going to get it--when he never does, he blames the Democrats because that is what fux news said.

[Johonny]

16. That's how voters see themselves, most people think they're middle class

That's the result of many polls on peoples own opinions of their economic position. The well off often see themselves as in the middle, the working poor often think of themselves as in the middle. Only the extreme generational poor often get they aren't in the middle class. Thus politicians talk about and to the middle class, because that phrase identifies with a wide band of Americans, even though many of them would not be considered middle class.

[TheKentuckian]

18. I dig that. I'm talking for making tax policy.

When Joe 195k cries poverty, I point out that Billy 1.5X minimum wage lives on 1/10 of his income in the same town and that Mr and Mrs raising three kids on 50K down the road get by and are expected to fully care for their family and pay their house note.

It is just pure stupid. Basic math and common sense tell anyone that if you are in the top 20% then you aren't in the middle despite having to go to work and not living in a box somewhere.

We used to have a term called upper class and that is what these folks are.

I'm just a believer in more brackets. I don't lump the upper class with the rich or even the rich with the wealthy but I'm not going to pretend that someone that is a top earner is in the same boat as somebody at half the median income.

I have no problem paying more than someone who makes half of what I do so why should I pussyfoot with someone that makes 5 or 10 times what I do?

Hell, I think people at minimum wage and thereabouts should be fucking excused. We get more than they can bear on payroll and sales tax.