tell me what is Middle class to you\

But...if I were to win a billion dollar lottery, I would live in hotels, drive a classic car, and sometimes work if I had to.

And if I had a house and car and job on credit, i would be sort of a sharecropper, wouldn't I? Sharing my income with the bank for the privelege of having what I need to work and live.

A lot of worried retirees have two houses, several new cars all paid for and worry about keeping up on property taxes, insurance etc.

We did not insult you! Perhaps we are saying Americas "middle class" includes everyone who shares those values and strives for them. "Middle class" in America doesn't depend on finances.

I know a couple who had a house the size of some peoples tool sheds. He was a carpenter. She was a sahm and babysitter. They cherished their son. They had the whole middle class "deal" on a very small income.

I know another couple. They kill themselves to be multi-millionaires. She works herself into disabling migraines. She cries with fright and loneliness alone in a big empty house while he is in a third world hotel surrounded by beggars. They are poorer than drug addicts living in condemned squats.

I once met a woman who had been a drug dealer/gang member doing terrible things and taking terrible risks with terrible people--and when she talked about how great it was she talked about a little house in a working class neighborhood for her kids and aunt...and when she got "straight" her life was shelters and welfare and low wage labor and ghetto. I don't know how to fit her into this discussion.

Or what to say about Iraqi immigrants who were doctors and nurses and engineers with companies, came here with promised asylum and now get to live on welfare or high school drop out jobs.

I've seen foreign students raise families on tiny stipends and little workstudy jobs. Some are "middle class" and some are "ghetto trash". On the same small opportunities for earned income.

So...if two lords go broke and one buys a sandwich shop and they both work there...are they working, middle or upper?

A definition created by experts...aka assholes from out of town with a clip board.

yep

To me, middle class is 40k per year per individual.

Rich is $10 million or more.

Wealthy is $500 million or more.

5*+ 's to the answer I was looking for

thanks to all for your input

The fact that we have the dying breed of Middle class society in AmeriKa
is a sad shame to all citizens that held their love
for a nation that seems to be in the throws of a most
unprecedented decay.

thank You All !

lower class - welfare and working poor.

middle class - working comfortable w/assets & debt.

upper middle class - retired or working w/assets no debt.

upper class - retired or working w/assets over $1M no debt.

wealthy - large assets that work for you. no debt.

Middle class in any country can be measured like this.

2x Cop salary

Middle class is what is having comfortable sight and distance to poor, but, has to said too, is obliged to stress the view up at many times to people of higher rank.

Middle class is allowed to play with some values of the upper rich. This at all to impress themselves, will say to offer a distance between middle-class people and of course to the poor those hungry and stolen sights at their better stand of living is quite a delicious, nutritious meal for the morality for them, claiming, the pride of this class is depending of.

Some say, you are middle-class if having at least one slave. But because often the female in the house could be find in such a position, the criteria is not that cute.

Between my wife and I we earn around 100,000. By the time all the bills are paid and some set aside for a rainy day and our kids college fund, we are looking forward to the next paycheque. We have a simple $200,000 dollar home and 1 van. Nothing extravagant. We try to save up for emergencies like car repairs because we try to never use credit.

pretty much accurate

I guess poor is just a "state of mind"

a very interesting thought

if you go back to 60's 70's standard true middle class would be $200k-1mil. today . rich is 10mil+. i took an economics class where we covered this very subject and the middle class no longer starts at 40k but the gov. still says it does so they can act like we still have a large middle class.

quite true

Its going to depend upon cost of living, but in general, I'd say its 50k-200k per year per household. Up to $1 million I'd call upper class. Anything above that would be rich.

Social Leeches are people who are fit to work, but choose not to, they exist on handouts.

Working class to me is somebody who works to survive because they have too much pride to accept their lot and be a burden on the state, if they came from a proud familiy with a good work ethic they can often end up as middle class or upper middle class, Occupations such as School Teachers skirt the threshold between working class and middle class.

Middle class to me is somebody whose parents were doctors or lawyers, professors, airline pilots etc. Somebody who could afford to be sent to private school and no university was out of the question.. they probably got a new car for their 18th birthday. They still work for a living but their family background gave them a much better start than somebody from a working class background.

Upper Middle Class is the elite of the middle class, they are not filthy rich, and probably worked for everything they have or at least made some good investments.. generally at least millionaires they probably dont want for anything within reason. They could probably afford to uproot their entire lives and emigrate or move without blinking an eyelid.

Indirectly they probably dont work anymore, but have significant investment portfolios consisting of property they rent out which generates an income. Think CEO's of medium size companies.

Upper Class People who have inherited wealth and were born into a life of privilege, they have enough money so that unless they made some very seriously terrible investments its not likely they will ever want for anything.

Could buy a small island like a working class or middle class person buys a car or house.

Elite People who have so much money its almost impossible to spend it, if they removed it from one particular bank it could cause economic problems.

These people have enough money to buy small countries, and probably have a collection of 250 thousand dollar watches and famous pieces of art.

Middle class is another fucking label.

By whose standard do we measure our "class"?

Aye, i dont hate anybody from any class, but people only earn my respect by proving themselves worthy of it. How much they earn or what they do is irrelevant.

I know rich people who are naive and somewhat stupid and i know poor people who are very intelligent, work really hard but just never got to exercise that in a field which would have allowed them to progress up the social ladder so to speak.

Haha, I was gonna say something like this. What makes one middle class? A 150,000 dollar mortgagae and 20,000 credit card debt.

Me, I'm "poor" but everything I own is mine. Plus, theres a bit stashed away. :)

That would make the middle class a relatively small minority, about 20% of the population.

The dollar has lost 95% of its value, price(not monetary) inflation today is over the top in relation to what the average persons income in the US is , if prices of goods/sevices where really to reflect the true current income of most people today those prices should be at least half of what they currently are.

Anything under half a million in family income a year is middle class and all its sub classifications to me

yes i'm glad you are waking up. actually 50k is top of lower class these days. we make about 50 and are not spendthrifts. we are barely making it month to month. no health care, life ins. old cars, nothing extra.

The definition of middle class is a family who does not have to rely upon the government for anything to make ends meet.

try starting at 80-90k below that is definitely working class.

another solid answer

Owning a good house in the city (not on a big mortgage), and one reasonable car (a sedan).

These next two are givens in Canada, but not the US: Sending kids to a good school that doesn't close any doors for them, and having full healthcare coverage for the whole family.

The family can afford to buy normal technology, organic food, and good clothes, but not designer clothes, fancy jewellery and top-end gadgets. The family can afford to go on vacation once a year.

No major debts of any kind, RRSP contributions regularly made and on target for the retirement plan you have set up for yourselves. (For you Americans, I think your RRSP is your 401K). Retirement age is 60-65. The retirement plan is to largely maintain the current quality of living standard that you have now.

Considerably worse than this is lower class. Considerably better than this is elite.

Trinity just summed it up perfectly!

So what are millionaires?

Billionaires?

Billionaires are the 1%, not people in the 350K range.