Just who is “rich” in America is a matter of considerable disagreement. No one disputes that Bill Gates (No. 1 on last year’s Forbes 400 list with a net worth of $57 billion) and Warren Buffett (No. 2 at $50 billion) are wealthy or, indeed, that everyone on the Forbes list qualifies (the poorest had a net worth of $1.3 billion). But as you move from billions in net worth to the mere hundreds or many tens of millions, and then to annual incomes of the mere hundreds of thousands, the arguing begins.
In April, The Wall Street Journal ran an article sympathetically portraying families with incomes around $250,000, the level that President Obama has targeted for tax increases. By most measures, these families rank in the top 2 percent to 4 percent of the income spectrum. But many—possibly most—see themselves as “upper middle class” and not “rich,” the paper reported.
“I’m not after sympathy,” said the wife of a surgeon who makes about $260,000. “What I want is a reality check on what rich means. I can pay my mortgage and can buy some clothes. I’m not going without, but I’m not living a life of luxury.” The mayor of San Jose scoffed at $250,000. That’s what a two-engineer couple might make, he said. It put them in “the upper working class” and wasn’t enough to “buy a home in Silicon Valley.”
