Stop Pretending You're Not Rich! (NYT Opinion Essay)

[CozyMystery]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/opinion/sunday/stop-pretending-youre-not-rich.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

Interesting article about the top 20%.

[luvMIdog]

1. That was a good article

[sharedvalues]

2. Very true

The top 20% need to realize it is patriotic to pay taxes to help those less well off.

At the same time, the top 0.01% and their takeover of the GOP are perhaps the central problem in America today. They are the ones who created the conditions for DJT. The upper middle class voted for Hillary and they generally support raising taxes.

[Igel]

5. Really?

My family rounds to the 20th percentile.

We're public school teachers. Investment income is from an IRA and nearly nothing.

Hardly rich.

[hedda_foil]

9. This piece uses the mean (average) of the income in the top 20%.

That means that the billionaires at the tippy top and the multi millionaires right below them and averages them in with everybody else in the top 20%, making the average income in that range to be $200,000. In fact, the only really accurate way to assess the average of that group is to peg it at the median, where there are the same number of households above the midpoint as below it. That way, the few insanely rich don't artificially inflate the supposed income of the rest of the upper middle class.

[blitzen]

11. Yes, exactly....It is misleading...

It suggests that anyone in the top 20% makes $200,000, which is BS for the reason you mention.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

15. Good point. Either the author and editor are

numerically-challenged or possibly using the more-informative median value didn't give results that support their thesis as well.

Nonetheless, it has the ring of truth. I lived and worked in the SF Bay Area for 26 years and - since my wife and I both worked in "professional" environments (a technical government agency and a large law firm) we knew lots of families making $200,000 a year and up (sometimes way up). They all owned homes in nice neighborhoods. Their kids always went to good schools - either they got into one of the few very-highly-ranked public programs or they bit the bullet and paid through the nose for private school. There were performance camps, art camps, robot-building camps, music lessons, gymnastics, soccer, etc, etc, etc. All of it was designed to get them into a good college so that they could get a good job. Sometimes it didn't work out, but usually it did. It's hard for me to villainize them, though. My wife and I don't have kids and it seemed like a lot of work and worry for those that did, no matter how much money they had to throw around.

[brer cat]

3. Good read.

Welcome to DU, CozyMystery.

[Yavin4]

4. Americans don't see class. They see race instead.

Our failure, both the Left and the Right, to see the current struggle as one of class not race is the primary reason why Trump won.

[sharedvalues]

7. yes, the old quote...

"America is focused on race and pretends it has no class problem,
while the UK is focused on class and pretends it has no race problem"

[JI7]

10. yup, there is thread about uneducated people being trump's supporters

but i pointed out how an educated white person is more likely to support trump than a non educated minority .

[Warren DeMontague]

6. Remember the Manhattan mom who complained about not being able to "get by" on 400K a year?

http://www.urbanbaby.com/topics/55010785

[Motownman78]

8. Rich people problems

I swear, sometimes rich people are the most trashy.

[JI7]

13. anyone who blames those who have less than them for their financial problems is trashy

[taught_me_patience]

14. 400k in Manhattan is not rich

And private schools in Manhattan are extremely expensive. At 400k, there is no way they can afford private schooling for two kids. Her beef should be with the financial aid policy of the school.

[Orrex]

16. Or, you know, don't send your kids to a preposterously expensive school

Last edited Mon Jun 12, 2017, 12:11 PM - Edit history (1)

The fact that they're dumb enough to send their kids to that money pit doesn't mean that $400K/year isn't rich. It means that they make catastrophically stupid financial choices.

As for $400K not counting for much in Manhattan, I can pretty much guarantee that someone lives within one mile who's getting by on 90% less.

[JI7]

12. fuck her and similar types like her

people like this could easily live a very good life .

but they think they should be able to live and spend like multimillionaires and billionaires and blame "those who don't pay" for their "problems".