<p>So the reason to go to Harvard must just be a status thing, purely trying to match up to one’s peers? Not the best school for the student or any other reason, just keeping up with the Joneses?</p>
<p>One can realize they are better off than most people, but still not consider themselves rich, overflowing with an abundance of cash. I don’t think a single person here needs to be reminded that they are fortunate. </p>
<p>“For decades, a rising tide lifted all yachts. Now, it is mainly lifting megayachts.”<br>
<a href=“Another Widening Gap: The Haves vs. the Have-Mores - The New York Times”>Another Widening Gap: The Haves vs. the Have-Mores - The New York Times;
<p>Since the 2008 financial crisis, the rising tide was QE which benefitted the .01% class the most. In fact, “the number of billionaires has doubled since the 2008 financial crisis” and “the world’s richest 85 people own as much as the entire poorer half of the world.” (<a href=“Number of billionaires doubles since crisis”>Number of billionaires doubles since crisis,
<a href=“Number Of Billionaires Has Doubled Since The Financial Crisis”>Number Of Billionaires Has Doubled Since The Financial Crisis)
.
I am not really sure the point of the conversation. I feel it’s a red herring. Instead of focusing on why the upper middle class are allegedly whining, we should focus on the fact why it seems to me the groups responsible for the 2008 financial crisis are richer than ever. Meanwhile, the middle-class savers continue to languish in their .025% bank accounts as they prefer to protect hard-earned money instead of continuing to funnel funds into stocks with bloated values.</p>
<p>As for unhappy, uber-rich guys, add Alibaba’s Jack Ma to the list. </p>
<p>so true. </p>
<p>Amazing how the super rich have gotten so much richer since 2008. And as the big donors, that won’t be changing.</p>
<p>“we should focus on the fact why it seems to me the groups responsible for the 2008 financial crisis are richer than ever.”</p>
<p>They make the rules.</p>
<p>“They make the rules”</p>
<p>Because they bought and paid for the rule makers.</p>
<p>Another book that has influenced my thinking is Adversity Quotient. Read it years ago. Points in that book have rung true to me over and over again. For example the part about control and how we perceive it.</p>
<p>Coming to mind also is what I’ve read about the reptilian brain sensing danger and therefore our tendency to focus on the negative. I like the idea of increasing the number of positive experiences (from Achor’s book), even if they’re small ones to develop a habit of more positive thinking. I feel I benefit greatly in many ways when I am in more positive mode. Not to say I find it easy!</p>
<p>Busdriver11, Yes. They did.</p>
<p>So…i am wondering…it is public relations and what sells…some people at the top 1 percent level don’t feel rich…</p>
<p>Maybe using 1 percent is too high a number…</p>
<p>Maybe it should be. .1 percent…, or .01 percent instead… Not just to decide what is rich or to make social change.</p>
<p>We talked about Steve Ballmer and his billion dollar bonanza. </p>
<p>Warren Buffett this week…got his own bonanza. He is trading his shares of Procter&Gamble for Duracell.</p>
<p>Warren Buffett’s company does not have to pay taxes on his stock gains in P&G.</p>
<p>The focus on the 1 percent takes the focus away from the people that run the show for their own benefit .</p>
<p>99…9 vs .1 ot 99.99 vs .01 is the way to go. </p>
<p>Forget 99 vs 1.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2014/11/13/the-huge-warren-buffett-duracell-deal-will-save-both-sides-billions-in-taxes/”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2014/11/13/the-huge-warren-buffett-duracell-deal-will-save-both-sides-billions-in-taxes/</a></p>
<p>"But don’t call it a sale. The unusual maneuver requires a level of cash and savvy that few mega-dealmakers could ever offer. The best part? Both sides could end up saving billions of dollars in taxes.</p>
<p>It’s called a “cash-rich split-off,” and it’s 100 percent legal under the country’s tax code. It’s also become a Buffett signature, offering all the perks of a high-level business trade with none of the costly downsides of a traditional sale."</p>
<p>“One can realize they are better off than most people, but still not consider themselves rich, overflowing with an abundance of cash. I don’t think a single person here needs to be reminded that they are fortunate.”</p>
<p>Right. And no one would walk around saying - hello, look at me, I’m rich.</p>
<p>But elite schools are a luxury good. And - well - you expect luxury goods to hit the pocketbook somewhat unless you are super-rich. Whether that luxury good is Harvard or a Rolls-Royce or a four-week cruise or a first-class ticket to Tahiti or a Birkin or whatever. And so the pretend “surprise” of it all gets a bit much.</p>
<p>And, of course, if you truly are a 0.1% (or even far below that), you don’t even really <em>need</em> an elite school education, because with that kind of money you do what you want and your kids do what they want. That’s what so amusing about these billionaires from other countries being soooo worried about getting their kids into Harvard. They don’t need Harvard in the first place. </p>
<p>
I agree with this. I am satisfied, happy, grateful, thrilled to give back. But I know I am not rich even though our family income is over $200,000. It takes three jobs, including two involving manual labor to get us there. We are beyond grateful for the opportunities to work so hard and give our kids a better life, but. It isn’t rich. Many uniformed or other municipal workers here work two jobs. Some actually are rich. We know a few who purchased seats on one of the exchanges or who own lucrative businesses. Most aren’t rich, though, and know that the loss of a job or an injury that prevents physical labor or even a suspension would be devastating. Rich isn’t a synonym for grateful or happy or satisfied. One can be all of those things without being either rich or poor, but could be either. But many of the people in our situation are, like us, all about giving the kids the best possible education with the least possible debt so they never have to be the guy pushing the broom behind the parade.</p>
<p>Deleted</p>
<p>I vote for taking the fun where you can get it and avoiding the heart attack.</p>
<p>“Feeling rich” is an interesting definition. It reminds me of a conversation I had with friends a few years after we all graduated from law school. Someone asked everyone around the room to raise their hands if they felt like they were an adult, and nobody raised their hand. We were all in our late 20’s, working as lawyers, living a supposedly adult life, many of us married as well, but nobody felt like an adult. Why? Because when we thought of what an “adult” was, we thought of our own parents. Nobody is going to “feel rich” until they’re living the kind of life that has been caricatured in TV and movies for years (personally, I think I’d need at least a butler before I’d feel rich). You’d get a lot more responses if you asked people if they felt “financially secure.”</p>
<p>However, the issue about wealth being concentrated more and more in the hands of a few thousand people at the top of the food chain is a real national problem, one that goes beyond whether the upper-middle-class feels rich or not. And because this concentration of wealth and power is accompanied by a political movement that wants to defund public services and throw all that saved money (taxpayer money, remember) to private enterprise, being a have-not nowadays means that you don’t even get the public services you used to get. Libraries are being closed, public schools replaced with charters, public parks not getting built at the same rate as new housing developments. There are places in the US where there’s no public fire-fighting service – you have to pay a fee for the service or the firefighters will not be coming to your house when it catches on fire. If this trend keeps up, the US will be on its way to becoming the kind of Third World economy where the super-rich live in gated communities with security guards, and everyone else is struggling to survive. If you think it can’t happen here, think again.</p>
<p>ya know where they were having all those wild fires this summer in the Cascades?
Volunteer fire fighters.
<a href=“New station a critical need for District 6 firefighters – Methow Valley News”>http://methowvalleynews.com/2014/10/17/new-station-a-critical-need-for-district-6-firefighters/</a></p>
<p>And in today’s newspaper….</p>
<p><a href=“Another Widening Gap: The Haves vs. the Have-Mores - The New York Times”>Another Widening Gap: The Haves vs. the Have-Mores - The New York Times;
<p>Bcause of life choices I am rich. My H and I’s total income is in the 90+ percentile in the USA. By world standards we are very rich. By US standards we are rich. But we are not ultra rich.</p>
<p>The ultra rich are the Hollywood folk,pro-sport athletes, business CEO’s and finance crowd and inheritor’rs. </p>
<p>But I don"t worry about money, have no debt, live in a modest paid for, as said, house. We owe no college debt. Our three kids went to very selective, expensive private colleges. Two of them have been on the most expensive schools list. Luckily they all earned renewable scholarships. We also got financial aid because of multiple kids in school. But we were also out of pocket several hundred thousand dollars over the eight years. </p>
<p>As i said, we are rich and we could do this. H and I do not live lavishly and very within our means But we travel and do stay in the best places if possible. We never hesitate to pick up the tab most of the time. Life is very good, Thanks be s to God . . </p>
<p>Good for you, morrismm. Of course it’s probably not just “life choices” that have gotten you where you are. There’s a lot of luck involved in most people’s financial success. And most people who likewise do all the “right” things are not rich.</p>
<p>Thought this might add to the conversation:
<a href=“'Billionaires' Book Review: Money Can't Buy Happiness | The New Republic”>http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120092/billionaires-book-review-money-cant-buy-happiness</a></p>
<p>^ givers and takers - interesting and very complicated</p>