Um, the income figures are adjusted for inflation...
Um, the income figures are adjusted for inflation...
Hope is the denial of reality
That's ridiculous. Under no reasonable definition are you poor on $150k-$200k per annumOriginally Posted by None
. You're certainly not better off homeless.
I thought you were going to be serious not act like a silly troll.
Well, he could be talking about Zimbabwean dollars?That's ridiculous. Under no reasonable definition are you poor on $150k-$200k per annum
I thought you were going to be serious not act like a silly troll.
Keep on keepin' the beat alive!
"Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt
It is poor, if you took that money to another country maybe it would be rich, but in the US its not that much.
At 150-200, can you afford to own your home and holiday home and own them both, afford the taxes on them, afford the home insurance, pay for the security system, live in middle class neighborhood so something upwards of half million dollar home, maybe even upwards of one million if you live in a more expensive part of the country, have 3 vehicles and replace them every 3 to five years, afford the insurance on those vehicles because children will be on the policy, take 3 months of time off on holidays every year, travel to other countries and actually spend 1 to 2 month abroad doing touristy things as a family all five or six of you, pay all possible medical bills that may arise, while being married and having say three or four children and putting money away for their higher education which is going to cost at least 200k per child since they will have living expenses and also as middle class you would not be settling for the cheapest options at the expense of quality. Assuming you are the sort of person to want to be able to give your children a big head start on all the rest. Also since social security is bankrupt at this point you will have to provision for your own retirement as the government will not be helping you out much and your medical bills are only going in one direction, massively up.
You could compare this to airline tickets, poor people = economy, middle class = business class, rich = first class. Try international travel booking your whole family at business class sometime and then come back to me as say $50k is a good wage, at 200, you probably could do it without thinking too hard and you might opt for more comfy hotels/rentals on the other side too, but you would still have to think about it since it would not be comfortable. Strangely enough the airlines have noticed the trend and trimming back on business class seats and putting in more economy ones.
Also you can compare it to the wonderful health care system we have here, when it is true you can get wiped out financially simple by having someone in the family have cancer or some other difficult to treat disease. As middle class you should be able to take the heat of something like that without too much of a hiccup in your step, but you won't be able to in the 150-200k bracket.
If you consider it trolling then I guess I would consider it a difference of opinion. Under 200k in the US as it stands now as a household income is under the poor bracket, its a lower quality of life for the long and medium term outlook of your life.
???
Better Half and I earn around 140k (take home being significantly less) total. We would not consider ourselves poor by ANY sense.
Brevior saltare cum deformibus viris est vita
No in the US it is definitely upper middle-class and by no means poor.
Some very unrealistic perspective here as to what "not poor" is.At 150-200, can you afford to own your home and holiday home and own them both, afford the taxes on them, afford the home insurance, pay for the security system, live in middle class neighborhood so something upwards of half million dollar home, maybe even upwards of one million if you live in a more expensive part of the country, have 3 vehicles and replace them every 3 to five years, afford the insurance on those vehicles because children will be on the policy, take 3 months of time off on holidays every year, travel to other countries and actually spend 1 to 2 month abroad doing touristy things as a family all five or six of you, pay all possible medical bills that may arise, while being married and having say three or four children and putting money away for their higher education which is going to cost at least 200k per child since they will have living expenses and also as middle class you would not be settling for the cheapest options at the expense of quality. Assuming you are the sort of person to want to be able to give your children a big head start on all the rest. Also since social security is bankrupt at this point you will have to provision for your own retirement as the government will not be helping you out much and your medical bills are only going in one direction, massively up.
To be able to afford your own home (and tax and insurance etc) is definitely not poor. To be able to afford a holiday home is rich.
To be able to afford a mortgage on a half million dollar home is affordable on $140k income and is most definitely not poor. My home cost my wife and I half that and I would not consider us to be poor.
3 vehicles is not remotely necessary for most families and is not the definition of not poor. 2 vehicles is more than enough for most couples. If children are old enough to drive they can drive old vehicles until they're old enough to afford their own.
3 months off a year? WTF?
1 month abroad each year on top of having a holiday home. Yeah most people should expect that right
No you could compare it to airline tickets. Poor = can't afford to fly, middle class = economy, rich business travellers = business, very rich = first.You could compare this to airline tickets, poor people = economy, middle class = business class, rich = first class. Try international travel booking your whole family at business class sometime and then come back to me as say $50k is a good wage, at 200, you probably could do it without thinking too hard and you might opt for more comfy hotels/rentals on the other side too, but you would still have to think about it since it would not be comfortable. Strangely enough the airlines have noticed the trend and trimming back on business class seats and putting in more economy ones.
You can't afford insurance in the $150k bracket? I call BS.Also you can compare it to the wonderful health care system we have here, when it is true you can get wiped out financially simple by having someone in the family have cancer or some other difficult to treat disease. As middle class you should be able to take the heat of something like that without too much of a hiccup in your step, but you won't be able to in the 150-200k bracket.
No since you don't have a clue what it means to be poor clearly. If you think just owning your own home but no holiday home, flying at all for just 2-3 weeks every year, owning just 1 vehicle per adult etc is poor you have no clue what poor means.If you consider it trolling then I guess I would consider it a difference of opinion. Under 200k in the US as it stands now as a household income is under the poor bracket, its a lower quality of life for the long and medium term outlook of your life.
Poor is struggling to make ends meet to get food on the table, to cope with the rent and your landlord, to buy clothes and other necessities etc
Considering that the US probably has the lowest prices in the developed world (it's certainly cheaper than anywhere in Western Europe), that $150k would actually be better than equivalent pay elsewhere. Incidentally, earning $167k per year would put you in the top 5% of income-earners in the US. Apparently the other 95% of Americans are poor...
Hope is the denial of reality
What's the US price for cane sugar compared to anywhere else?
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
What's the Bolivian price for strawberries?
Hope is the denial of reality
What's the US price of (you name it) perscription drug compared to anywhere eles?
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
Do you know what purchasing power means? If not, I suggest you look it up. Hint: it's not made up from the price of whichever item you happen to fancy at the moment.
Hope is the denial of reality
Lowest prices is lowest prices. You gonna back it up or what?
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
USA has one of the OECD's lowest price levels. Certainly no nation lower like Chile or Mexico has higher earnings than the USA.
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=CPL#
12th lowest prices of 34 countries surveyed. Precious.
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
LOL your analysis is so off I'm not sure if its an attempt at humor or actually being serious.
Do you only come here to troll? I refuse to believe someone can actually be that stupid.
Hope is the denial of reality
You are stupid.
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
Rich and poor are subjective terms when I was a student and had CHF 500 to spend a month I felt that someone making 5,000 was rich, Now making 15,000 before bonuses I am more aware of the things I can not afford. I would not call myself poor but not rich either, I somewhat agree that this is more a middle-class bracket. Certainly having an income of 150k for a family with 3 children would be pushing the poor threshold for me as you would have to divide that income by 5.
Having 3 children doesn't mean you need 5x the income. Never heard of economies of scale?
Yeh. It means having to wear your elder sister's hand-me-downs.
You seem to be conflating greed and poverty. Just because you always want more things doesn't make you poor.
Hope is the denial of reality
As I said i don't consider myself poor since this my income alone and my wife makes more then me and we have no children as yet. But I disagree that it is greed 150k income split over a family of 5 would be poverty in my book, 30k before tax to spend on a person per year is not what I can in good faith call middle class. Life is more expensive here though, but taxes are lower so maybe you barely make it to middle class in US.
I'd really like to know how you'd spend 30k per child.
Hope is the denial of reality
Especially as we have good public schools.
"Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt
It would be one heck of a definition of poverty to include attending private schools.
Hope is the denial of reality
It would explain the 30K tag though. I mean, what would you use 80 bucks a day for?
"Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt
Monthly expenses:
Food = $200
Clothing = $100
Toys/other = $50
Healthcare = $100
Rent (for half a room) = $200
That works out to about $8k a year. And I'm being pretty generous with most of those expenses (my parents didn't spend half of that on me).
Hope is the denial of reality
Hang on, is that your budget for a US minor child, or a dependent child? You forgot Day Care, After-school Care/programs, transportation, sports equipment, educational technology, 'summer enrichment programs', musical instruments/lessons, orthodontia....I could go on.
$200/month for food is low for a teenaged boy, while $100/month for clothing is high (even if that includes new shoes), and most families don't divide their rent/mortgage into per person portions like that.
No, it doesn't have to cost $30,000/year to raise a child, let alone each child in a household. But their age-based needs, family income, locality, COL, and government investments (subsidies) make a huge difference in every family budget.
You pay less when they're young and more when they're teens...
Hope is the denial of reality
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
