Except people who truly are in what has historically been considered the “upper class” consider themselves to remain in that class even when they are impoverished. See Jane Austen, or Edward St. Aubyn. I don’t think those kinds of class distinctions have much relevance to contemporary America, which is my problem with this whole discussion.
This is a preview of my favorite show on social class in America. I love this show.
The links have to be copied and pasted. Sorry. The links are worth it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU5MtVM_zFs
I love these girls…
Belles Belles Belles
This is a link about a dance team and how it affects some girls…
I think the upper-middle-class standard in the United States is a halfway decent car for everyone of driving age plus a home with enough bedrooms for the children plus an additional one, plus a few extras. So four or five bedrooms, at least 2.5 baths. I can see how it would be very, very difficult to have that kind of lifestyle in Palo Alto on $250,000 per year.
The question I have is why people choose to live like this. In flyover America nice homes sell for $35 to $125 per square foot. My wife and I paid $310,000 for a 4,200 sq. foot house in a two-acre-lot subdivision. We did get a bit of a deal, because the former owner bought it at the bottom of the housing collapse and was ready to move. Our house payment is about $1,700 per month, but in three years that drops to around $1,300 per month, when we drop the mortgage insurance (we went FHA so our mortgage would be assumable). So someone in flyover America with a $250,000 income would be viewed as “rich,” and because their low expenses would allow them to save, they would eventually become truly rich through savings.
If we were to suddenly face a $7,000 per month house payment I know we would begin to feel very poor, very quickly. But with that said, the Michigan girl could have chosen her words a lot more carefully.
EarlVanDorn,
People around here are buying the SF bay area. The house is secondary. The same with people who live in Manhattan.
We just went through this with my daughter. She was looking to buy in Austin, Texas or the SF bay area. She chose the bay area knowing she was going to get less house…and she did get less house…a lot less. There are no additional bedrooms if she has two kids. 
“I think the upper-middle-class standard in the United States is a halfway decent car for everyone of driving age plus a home with enough bedrooms for the children plus an additional one, plus a few extras. So four or five bedrooms, at least 2.5 baths.”
If that’s the upper middle class standard, then my family is definitely not upper middle class, even though we earn a bit over $100,000. We have one three-year-old car, one extremely old car, and there’s no way we can buy our teen a car. We have a small two-bedroom townhouse, and really could use more room, but can’t afford to move. We also can’t afford to do the significant renovation this house needs.
We have significant out-of-pocket medical expenses, and although we basically have to eliminate a lot of (almost all) other “extras” to pay them at least we have enough money to make that choice. Also, we can pay for most of the in-state college our daughter will go to. I know not everyone can say that. Does that make us upper middle class?
Not where I live.
@sans serif, Fifty percent of American households will have a household income of $100,00 or more for at least five years; A third will have a six-figure income for 10 or more years. So I would put your household income as above average and at the upper end of middle class, but not necessarily “upper middle class.” But a lot depends on where you live and what you do.
In fact, you are an example of what the Michigan girl was talking about. In my home town (where I don’t live), houses, including perfectly restored antebellum homes, go for as little as $30 per square foot. My hometown really hasn’t recovered from the soybean boom of the late 1970s and the crash which followed. Prices today are lower than they were in 1981. So an income of $100,000 in my hometown would make you among the elite. Of course, there’s a reason I don’t live in my hometown: the public school has no white children and the private school costs $6,000 per year and has no AP courses. But once the kids are out of school, I may head back.
@sue22 “Halfway-decent” doesn’t mean new, just kind of shiny and not a beater. I just bought a eight-year-old Mercedes for $14,000. My wife has a company van. My son has a 10-year-old BMW that cost $9,000. So we have a total household investment in cars of $23,000, which I don’t believe to be excessive. If members of a family don’t have any way to get around, I’m not sure they are “upper middle class.”
With that said, I have a cousin in New York who probably doesn’t own a car, and he has more money than Carter has Liver Pills. So I’m giving the suburban, small-town idealization of upper-middle-class, not the urban version.
@EarlVanDorn, Ah, but if your kid’s at boarding school they don’t need a car.
Seriously, I wonder if some of this is regional. I’m always flabbergasted at the number of parents I see posting who are looking for FA but whose budgets include the costs of a kid’s car. Few of my kids’ friends have cars. Their parents may have new Lexuses, BMWs, or Acuras but if the family has an extra car it’s shared among any kids of driving age.
Adding-this is in a small suburban town of about 15,000.
I share my one older car with both kids. But we’re not middle class and we live in a walkable town.
Not sure why the few or no white kids in the school is a deal-breaker. May not be ideal in terms of ethnic diversity, but if the academics in the school are fine, that may be an acceptable tradeoff if other options have weaker academics. (There are public high schools, including high performing ones, around here that are 3-8% white.)
@dstark, I like the link you provided for the social class, it’s funny. That reminds of the time about 5 years ago when my son (150lbs) entered a blueberry pie eating contest in a small county fair in Blue Hill, Maine. He was competing with 5 other guys, average weight 300lbs, tattoos galore, tank tops, reversed caps. They were judged by how much pie was consumed in one minute, face down, no hands. My boy won.
He said the technique was slurping from outside to inside. His Ivy education paid off!
Class is not income dependent. Earning a lot of money may make someone upper income, but it doesn’t mean they know how to behave.
If a family earns the median income, I don’t think it matters where in their career they are. People suffer reverses all the time. Some work their way out and others may not be so lucky. When I look at median incomes, I include everyone at that level; I don’t discount groups based on age.
I’m not sure why the classification matters, unless those with ~$250k incomes want colleges to consider the cost of living in their area when calculating financial aid. I think that’s expecting colleges to subsidize our lifestyles, but I’m willing to explore it. How far are we willing to go? Can the family who wants to hide a $100k profit from the recent sale of their business (by scaling up to a larger primary residence) get need based financial aid, resell the house after the child graduates, and pocket the profits? What about the mom out west who makes roughly $200k who simply doesn’t want to pay for her kid? Can she claim high cost of living expenses and expect colleges to fund her child’s education? What about the dad who has a full pension from a first career, will have a 2nd full pension from a second, and has a spouse who works full-time? Should we expect colleges to offer his kids need based aid because the family lives in an expensive area? What about the family whose mom is a professional clearing ~$250k, but the cost of living (including private middle and secondary school, cleaning help, the live in nanny for the youngest, and yearly 2 week vacations) leaves them cash poor? Where exactly can colleges expect the cut off to be?
Cbreeze, I am glad you liked the link and I am glad your son’s Ivy League education paid off!
This one is good. Not too long.
A couple from the Staten island area is going to get married…
There were no white children (besides me and 2 other kids) in my elementary school. I got a great education there AND can still sing all the verses to Lift Every Voice and tell you all about Nat Turner and Frederick Douglass too…
Isn’t this already taken into account for financial aid?
Why is this woman marrying ‘down’ if she is so concerned about appearances? I wouldn’t think of judging people based on what town they are from or live. I think in the west coast, “class” as a whole isn’t as important as the rest of the country.
Cbreeze-
My s won a hotdog eating contest. He was clearly the underdog (pun intended) in that one too.
She’s just an out-and-out snob and certainly not typical of the east coast.