Is $250,000 really middle class?

The middle class is everybody who is not rich and not poor! People who bring in millions each year are rich. People who bring in whatever is around the poverty line are poor. Everyone else is middle class, and that can be subdivided into lower-middle and upper-middle.

A combined family income of $250,000 is technically upper middle class, but middle class nonetheless. The rich make much more than that. Ask your celebrities, professional athletes,bankers and debutantes if they could live on $250,000 a year. They waste that much on a party.

The range of being middle class is huge. Just because two people combined earn more than you doesn't mean they are automatically rich.

Why politicians insist on embellishing or skewing reality is beyond me, are we so gullible? In general, our leaders have an unrealistic view of were the middle class income originates. Certainly where you live in the country affects the income/cost of living ratio and may limit the opportunities available to affect that ratio.  With that said, if our political leaders truly wish lesion any notion of penalizing an income bracket then we, as a nation, need to begin discussions on a Flat Tax.  Until that happens, it will be business as usual and begs the question, which power brokers do you really believe? Money still buys elections.

Due the ecomony my wife and I live in different areas. We can't afford to sell the house in suburban Atlanta and my job took me to No. VA. where we now have a second home. We file our taxes seperately as when I moved we refinanced the GA home in her name, the VA home is in my name. I live in the "richest county in America" and my income is right at the medium household income in the county, my wife is in the second highest income county in GA and her income is 15% higher than the mean. We are not rich, we live comfortably take vacations, max our 401K and have 1 years emegery funds (mortage, utilities, taxes) for each house in regular savings. We consider ourselves upper middle class, we make charitable contributions etc. Yet our combined incomes is slightly less than Mitten's lower end figure fo rmiddle class.

He has no idea about the citizens of this country that cannot afford to belong to country clubs, yatch clubs or have their own private aircraft.

Also I currently pay about 12 percentage points less on my income tax today than when Ronald Reagan was president, after his tax cuts. This country does need tax reform and going back to the Clinton era rates is a good begining, across the board at all income levels.

These fools call $250k middle class so they can include themselves based on their congressional salary. if you take 50% of everything from the rich, who combined earn a total of around $750 billion, it won't put a dent into fixing the problem. The problem is their incessant spending and giving away money, like bankrupt green companies, bank bailouts etc. and bloating the free-stuff bandwagon moochers.

The easy solution is a VAT, the more you consume the more you pay. Exempt clothes up to say $250 per purchase, food (groceries, not caviar). Someone buying a Hyandai for $15K pays say $1,500, someone that buys a $150k lamboghini pays $15,000. The rich that buy boats etc will be forced to pay more. Those of us that don't buy lots of stuff wil be relieved. This way no loopholes, or shinanigans.

Then do what Romney wants, eliminate write-offs but lower the marginal rates. Over the past 20 years my federal tax rate has been between 15-17% of gross income, while my tax bracket is defined as the 36% level. Eliminate deductions and everyone pays 20%. Of course this is way to simple so therefore be greek to the bureaucrats

$250 is not rich by any means UNLESS you are a single adult who has been earning this income for at least a few years. If you are a family man who has only recently earned his way up to this income then it's barely enough and does not make you rich. It also depends on where you live. If you are using that money to put four members of society (aka my kids) through college, and have a wife that stays home to raise these members of society so they are productive adults then NO this is barely enough. But we've made sacrifices all along (no day care will raise my children, no vacations, no fancy cars, no fancy house) and I have only recently came into this income as the result of very very hard work.  It's disheartning to hear now that I may be considered rich.  Now what? If I'm taxed even more then college for my kids, and my wife staying home to raise them is in jeopardy. How is that a good thing for society?? Will this push folks into considering a two parent income where kids are left to be raised by day cares and people who will never care for them like their parents?

I see alot of people posting here who are making excuses for their high income and saying we make 250K per year but were not well off because it's expensive where we live or our taxes are high...waaa, waaa, waaa...

if your family income is over 80K per year your doing alright, if your over 120k per year your doing better than alright..but if your family income is 250K per year, your not midle class anymore..No excuses !....you would not be able to afford that place in NYC if you were middle class....and I really dont give a rats **** how hard you think you worked to make that much or if your college education helped you get there, there are plenty of us who work long hours and break our backs but dont make half what you do..

So lets call it like it is and stop complaining and be glad you live in a country where you can make that much .....I'd love to be making 250K a year...I would not waste it living in NYC or Chicago or LA...