4 ms·

Well, middle class used to mean the family lived on one income, the mother stayed home/kids/charity, the house in the suburbs was owned and you would have a car

Well, middle class used to mean the family lived on one income, the mother stayed home/kids/charity, the house in the suburbs was owned and you would have a car. Would $55k get you this today? I don't think so. Would $250k get you this today? Maybe. edit: typo

ChuckMcM 11y ago
There aren't a lot of places where you can't live on an annual gross income of 250K. The quality of life will vary, if you living in New Jersey for example and commuting over to Manhattan, or out in Livermore taking the train into San Jose or Oakland. You would be doing just fine in Portland and much of Seattle. Places like Albuquerque and Des Moines would have you really living well. But looking at it a different way, where is the money going in those various locales? Given the cost of living in the Bay Area compared to the Columbus metro area, the amount of 'pay dollars' is generally flowing out at a much higher rate in the Bay Area, but they are soaked up just as quickly as they are in Columbus. So who is getting them? Banks with their Mortgages? Schools? Government? Restaurants? How can you have a population of people making $200K a year in one place experiencing the same level of "wealth" as people making $100K a year in another place? That makes for an interesting conversation.
- the-dude 11y ago
  While this certainly might be interesting today, you glossed over the fact that middle class was earned by a single income in earlier days. Which I think is far more interesting.
  - eimai134 11y ago
    Great point. We have feminism in part to thank for that. Corporations are thrilled to now get two workers for the price of one.
  - rubyfan 11y ago
    It'd be interesting to see when this balance tipped on a timeline. There's a lot of factors at play here. I can imagine a time where not everyone in the middle class had an expectation of going to college. I could also imagine a US advantage on skilled labor that would have yielded far better wages which has steadily eroded under globalization. I am also imagining a time when taxes where less burdensome. Probably some other factors at play that I am overlooking as well, still I wonder when the tipping point was 1980s?
- eli_gottlieb 11y ago
  >So who is getting them? Banks with their Mortgages? Schools? Government? Restaurants? Banks and landlords, mostly. Local governments would love to get in on it all, but Prop 13 restricts their ability to raise real-estate taxes.

ChuckMcM 11y ago

There aren't a lot of places where you can't live on an annual gross income of 250K. The quality of life will vary, if you living in New Jersey for example and commuting over to Manhattan, or out in Livermore taking the train into San Jose or Oakland. You would be doing just fine in Portland and much of Seattle. Places like Albuquerque and Des Moines would have you really living well. But looking at it a different way, where is the money going in those various locales? Given the cost of living in the Bay Area compared to the Columbus metro area, the amount of 'pay dollars' is generally flowing out at a much higher rate in the Bay Area, but they are soaked up just as quickly as they are in Columbus. So who is getting them? Banks with their Mortgages? Schools? Government? Restaurants? How can you have a population of people making $200K a year in one place experiencing the same level of "wealth" as people making $100K a year in another place? That makes for an interesting conversation.

the-dude 11y ago
While this certainly might be interesting today, you glossed over the fact that middle class was earned by a single income in earlier days. Which I think is far more interesting.
- eimai134 11y ago
  Great point. We have feminism in part to thank for that. Corporations are thrilled to now get two workers for the price of one.
- rubyfan 11y ago
  It'd be interesting to see when this balance tipped on a timeline. There's a lot of factors at play here. I can imagine a time where not everyone in the middle class had an expectation of going to college. I could also imagine a US advantage on skilled labor that would have yielded far better wages which has steadily eroded under globalization. I am also imagining a time when taxes where less burdensome. Probably some other factors at play that I am overlooking as well, still I wonder when the tipping point was 1980s?
eli_gottlieb 11y ago
>So who is getting them? Banks with their Mortgages? Schools? Government? Restaurants? Banks and landlords, mostly. Local governments would love to get in on it all, but Prop 13 restricts their ability to raise real-estate taxes.