Are you part of the Gibson-middle class?

Parent Cafe
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<p>“I guess I’d still ask, since your income seems to have been so much lower in the past, I would think that such a large increase would lead to feeling pretty comfortable, wouldn’t it?”</p>

<p>This is our starter house, so 13 years down the road we may feel more secure, but we are a little anxious since we put down a lot of money 3 1/2 years ago and now have negative equity. we don’t feel comfortable at all, but as I posted, we do feel grateful. Part of that is that the college thing went smoothly and reasonably for D1, but I don’t know what to expect for D2.</p>

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<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060242086-post117.html]#117[/url]”>quote</a> Look, Stitch, maybe that CEO/Bond Trader whatever the heck isn’t good so much as lucky. In my business, luck has a whole lot to do with success. I know a lot of good writers (better than me by a long shot) who just never got that great manuscript on the right desk at the right moment and it wasn’t for want of effort. There are phenomenons in every business…Tiger Woods and J.K. Rowling come to mind…</p>

<p>Bond traders and such have their place in this world but not everyone aspires to shove numbers around all day. Money brings misery as often as it brings happiness…check out the Curse of the Lottery. There’s an awful lot of fabulously rich people out there who have had multiple ugly divorces, never talk to their children, and are unhappy, lonely, arrogant people. Maybe that’s the price they pay for their wealth…I’m not willing to trade for it.

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<p>What is described are the normal economic choices one would expect to find in a free society. But this still leaves the original question unaddressed:</p>

<p>Are the solutions to the [‘ills’[/url</a>] described only addressable by government policy (a living wage), or is self-interest, self-sufficiency and initiative a viable alternative? Or put another way, is poster [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060241108-post105.html]hayden[/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060241108-post105.html]hayden[/url</a>] incorrectly attempting to describe a [url=<a href=“Zero-sum game - Wikipedia”>Zero-sum game - Wikipedia]zero-sum</a> game](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060241108-post105.html]‘ills’[/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060241108-post105.html) where one person’s success comes at the expense of someone else?</p>

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<p>StitchInTime,</p>

<p>Well, to be fair, GDP is zero-sum in the short-run since product is finite. It’s in the long-run that we no longer concern ourselves with a constant pie. However, people are, for better or for worse, “stuck” in the short run.</p>

<p>That’s why it’s troubling that the GINI coefficient in the US is large and growing.</p>

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<p>it’s hard to say GDP is finite even in the short run when people can buy a company for $2 Billion sell of pieces for that much and then sell the core company to offshore investors for the purchase price. That’s creating wealth and that’s what the guys who made 100’s of millions in a year do. Or did–might be tougher this year but i’m sure there are bargains out there.</p>

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<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060244258-post123.html]#123[/url]”>quote</a> Well, to be fair, GDP is zero-sum in the short-run since product is finite. It’s in the long-run that we no longer concern ourselves with a constant pie. However, people are, for better or for worse, “stuck” in the short run.</p>

<p>That’s why it’s troubling that the GINI coefficient in the US is large and growing.

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<p>Because so many are predisposed to support redistribution of wealth policies, the following offers a historical perspective:</p>

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<p>How much of that effect is due to importing low skilled immigrants?</p>

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<p>Referenced as a link [above[/url</a>], but emphasized here to specifically address the misplaced concern.</p>

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<p>Read the whole thing to see how the analysis debunks each myth.</p>

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<p>YouTube Video: [The</a> Coming Collapse of the Middle Class](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVL7QY0S8A]The”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVL7QY0S8A)</p>

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I never knew Dallas was “off grid” :)</p>

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<p>[I must be out of touch but where are all these people with a family income of $40 K? I have a fairly wide range of friends, siblings, etc. that make up my experience. They are not all doctors or lawyers – included are high-school teachers, electricians, nurses, federal employees, policemen, and auto workers. They are all way above the $40k figure.]</p>

<p>I have a residence in a town where the median household income is about $80K and another residence in a city where the median household income is less than $40K. Differences are night and day. Levels of crime in the city are off the scale compared to the town. Building are drab, vehicles much older and smaller and families struggle.</p>

<p>I imagine browsing city statistics on Wikipedia for random places will find you cities and towns where median household is low.</p>

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<p>My definition of middle-class: Anyone whose income is plus or minus 20% of mine. I think a lot of people have the same definition. How many among us dare to admit that we are “rich”? Here is a convenient list:</p>

<p>Homeless poor.
Unemployed poor.
Working poor.
Lower middle class.
Me.
Upper middle class.
Rich.
Affluent.
Wealthy.
Super-rich.
Unimaginably rich.</p>

<p>I think all government programs and tax breaks should be targetted to the middle class, especially the people between upper middle class and lower middle class.</p>

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<p>In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don’t Feel Rich </p>

<p>MENLO PARK, Calif. — By almost any definition — except his own and perhaps those of his neighbors here in Silicon Valley — Hal Steger has made it.</p>

<p>Mr. Steger, 51, a self-described geek, has banked more than $2 million. The $1.3 million house he and his wife own on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean is paid off. The couple’s net worth of roughly $3.5 million places them in the top 2 percent of families in the United States.</p>

<p>Yet each day Mr. Steger continues to toil in what a colleague calls “the Silicon Valley salt mines,” working as a marketing executive for a technology start-up company, still striving for his big strike. Most mornings, he can be found at his desk by 7. He typically works 12 hours a day and logs an extra 10 hours over the weekend.</p>

<p>“I know people looking in from the outside will ask why someone like me keeps working so hard,” Mr. Steger says. “But a few million doesn’t go as far as it used to. Maybe in the ’70s, a few million bucks meant ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,’ or Richie Rich living in a big house with a butler. But not anymore.”</p>

<p>Silicon Valley is thick with those who might be called working-class millionaires — nose-to-the-grindstone people like Mr. Steger who, much to their surprise, are still working as hard as ever even as they find themselves among the fortunate few. Their lives are rich with opportunity; they generally enjoy their jobs. They are amply cushioned against the anxieties and jolts that worry most people living paycheck to paycheck.</p>

<p>Where would you place working-class millionaires that don’t feel rich?</p>

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<p>You’re breaking my heart …</p>

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<p>A few million would go REAL far for ME!!! :)</p>

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<p>People can re-define and re-frame anyway they want; that doesn’t mean their definitions have any connection to reality.</p>

<p>As I see it, the man could quit right now, enjoy his paid for dream home overlooking the ocean, and live off the interest on his 2M. What’s not rich in that scenario?</p>

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<p>“As I see it, the man could quit right now, enjoy his paid for dream home overlooking the ocean, and live off the interest on his 2M. What’s not rich in that scenario?”</p>

<p>I agree completely, but I happen to very much adire the work ethic.</p>

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<p>Treasury money markets are paying maybe 2% (I haven’t checked lately but they way the Fed cuts have been making it tougher to save) which is $40K per year. I imagine property taxes take a good chunk out of that.</p>

<p>The guy is doing what he loves and he probably doesn’t consider it as work. It just happens to pay well. I think that the stats on households in the US is that 1 in 140 have assets over a million. That may have changed quite a bit with the housing bubble implosion but that’s still a pretty surprising statistic.</p>