So they're trying to make $250K/yr seem like 'not that much'.

[redqueen]

http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/106934/Wealth-Less-Effect-Earning-Well-Feeling-Otherwise

Yeah... good luck with that. Really.

Ellen Parnell and her husband, Donald Parnell Jr., seem like the kind of well-off couple President Barack Obama has in mind when he suggests raising taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year. A surgeon at Fort Sanders Sevier Medical Center in Sevierville, Tenn., he drives an Infiniti. They vacation at a beach resort every year.

Yet, right now he is working seven days a week. The car is more than a decade old, the vacation home in Sandestin, Fla., comes at a moderate weekly rate because members of Ms. Parnell's extended family own it. Her family of five would like more room than they have in their 2,500-square-foot home, yet they can't afford anything larger. The downturn has them skittish about paying for renovations.

"I'm not complaining, but the reality is Obama may call me wealthy, but I thought we were just good old middle class," says Ms. Parnell. "Our needs are being met, but we don't have a load of cash to cover wants."

It is a tricky situation in which some Americans find themselves after a long boom: They are by no means struggling, compared with the 98% of Americans who make far less, but depending on where they live and the lifestyle choices they have made, they don't necessarily feel rich, either. Worse, in their view, they are facing the same tax rates as those making millions. Some of the expenses are self-inflicted -- like private-school costs and conspicuous consumption. Others, though, are unavoidable, like child-care costs, larger health-care deductibles and education expenses, especially college.

oops... dupe...

I did search for the title and the names in the article. argh.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. My household income is about 80k in a really expensive area

I don't feel much sympathy for them.

[Hello_Kitty]

5. I'll trade them their income and tax increase for my income and tax cut.

I made the princely sum of $25K last year.

[pnutbutr]

2. I'd like to see

people like that living on $50k per year to get a sense of reality. $50k is about the average income in the US is it not?

[spinbaby]

3. But $10 minimum wage is "too much"

Amazing how those minds work.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Their taxes are going to go up like $12.

Ignorant assholes think they're going to pay the same rate as millionaires. After they take all their deductions, they will pay a slightly higher marginal rate, which if they do their taxes right should be minimal.

[JVS]

6. I feel safe in asserting that $25,000/ year is a "living" wage. Not lavish, maybe not enough to...

live well in a fancy neighborhood, but certainly enough to keep body and soul together. Now suppose we were at a dinner table eating a reasonable meal and one of the people at the table decided to keep eating until they had consumed ten of them. Nobody would hesitate to chastise this person for making a gluttonous pig of himself. If we were to expand the social scope and have people at the table who got a half portion or less, not only would that individual be considered a pig, he would be considered a heartless pig. Yet when it comes to money, not only aren't they called on their voracious appetite, they are praised as a success.

[redqueen]

7. "we don't have a load of cash to cover wants"

How can people who go on a vacation every year say that?

I just can't grok this mindset. It's completely alien to me.

[JVS]

8. The entitlement.

A private schooling, a comfortable house in a good neighborhood, an elite college even if little Derrick or Caitlyn isn't really all that smart, a yearly vacation (and to somewhere tasteful goddamit). These are not seen as fulfilled wants, they're seen as maintenance of the family's class status as living that lifestyle (or keeping up with the Joneses).

[redqueen]

11. This guy has $1,200 left over each month...

but still says "I can pay my mortgage and I can buy some clothes. I'm not going without, but I'm not living a life of luxury."

He can buy "some clothes"? With $1200 *left over* after bills every month?

:wow:

[KatyMan]

9. So would you refuse a raise?

Or a promotion? If you had a skill that the market would pay you well for, would you not use it or would you charge less for it?

[crimsonblue]

10. I'm going to call bullshit

If the guy is a dentist working 7 days a week, he is making more than $250,000 a year. Second, I guarantee he has excellent health and dental benefits, because doctors and dentists always have good benefits. Third, stop bitching about a vacation home, when millions of Americans are facing foreclosure on their primary residence. How presumptuous and arrogant does one have to be to bitch about "wants" not being met, while you are self-admittedly meeting all of your needs? Fuck off.

[Hello_Kitty]

14. And the tax increase they are facing is negligible!

Really, if they're going to piss and moan about higher taxes they might want to actually consult the chart to see what they'll be paying. It's marginal income OVER $250K AFTER deductions. So you're right, they probably are making a lot more than $250K. And they're going to pay something like $12 more, while claiming they're paying "the same rate as millionaires!" Cry me a fucking river. :grr:

[cobalt1999]

12. It's not chicken feed, but it's not wealth either.

My wife and I pull in about $250K/year.

Our needs are meet, we can fund our children's college funds, and going out to eat or taking a quick trip doesn't require reworking the budget. However, neither of us has a new car, our vacations aren't lavish, and we have a mortgage still on a 2000 sq ft home.

I consider it middle class to upper third middle class living.

BTW, I have no issue with any tax increase. If we go out a couple less times for dinner each month, it's no big deal.

[redqueen]

13. Yeah, that's the thing.

You have no issue with the tax increase... apparently others who voted for Obama do.

I expect republicans to be greedy and selfish. But people who voted for Obama? Complaining because they *only* have $1200 left over after bills every month?

:wtf: