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Would you rather be richer and have more buying power in absolute terms, or just make sure the fellow next door doesn’t have more than you? This graph is misle

Would you rather be richer and have more buying power in absolute terms, or just make sure the fellow next door doesn’t have more than you? This graph is misleading. It talks about middle class as a percent of national median income, which means large numbers of people counted as lower-class in the US would be counted as middle-class if they lived in Europe and made the same income.

scarmig 7y ago
I'd most like to have an existence where I don't worry about being bankrupted by a medical emergency or surviving on cat food once I retire[0]. [0] The cheap cat food, I mean, not the $10/meal cat food that rich Americans buy their pets.
- tristor 7y ago
  Presumably since you're posting on this site you have a marketable skillset in a high demand field, which means you can enjoy a lucrative career and through making good decisions have significant retirement savings so you can afford to eat normally. Maybe you meant that you want that existence for others, in which case, you might have a point, but I think a lot of the people who have your worries in the tech industry only have them because they live in stupidly high cost-of-living areas like SV.
  - scarmig 7y ago
    Maybe not the retirement so much, but a medical issue can easily lead to bankruptcy, even when you have seven figures in assets.
    - marcoperaza 7y ago
      If you have insurance—which someone with “seven figures in assets” should—then that is not a risk. Of course, insurance will only pay for so much. At some point of diminishing returns, they will cut you off. Just like any healthcare system in the world will. You can always spend more money for a tiny chance of living longer.
      - scarmig 7y ago
        You have way too optimistic a point of view on insurance. Yes, you can even be bankrupted while being insured and a paper millionaire.
ixtli 7y ago
Neither: I care that the fellow next door has access to first world quality food, shelter, education, and medicine without means testing. I also see no evidence that this desire is at odds at all with my lifestyle as a quasi-middle class person living comfortably.
- marcoperaza 7y ago
  That has nothing at all to do with the information in this chart though.

scarmig 7y ago

I'd most like to have an existence where I don't worry about being bankrupted by a medical emergency or surviving on cat food once I retire[0]. [0] The cheap cat food, I mean, not the $10/meal cat food that rich Americans buy their pets.

tristor 7y ago
Presumably since you're posting on this site you have a marketable skillset in a high demand field, which means you can enjoy a lucrative career and through making good decisions have significant retirement savings so you can afford to eat normally. Maybe you meant that you want that existence for others, in which case, you might have a point, but I think a lot of the people who have your worries in the tech industry only have them because they live in stupidly high cost-of-living areas like SV.
- scarmig 7y ago
  Maybe not the retirement so much, but a medical issue can easily lead to bankruptcy, even when you have seven figures in assets.
  - marcoperaza 7y ago
    If you have insurance—which someone with “seven figures in assets” should—then that is not a risk. Of course, insurance will only pay for so much. At some point of diminishing returns, they will cut you off. Just like any healthcare system in the world will. You can always spend more money for a tiny chance of living longer.
    - scarmig 7y ago
      You have way too optimistic a point of view on insurance. Yes, you can even be bankrupted while being insured and a paper millionaire.

ixtli 7y ago

Neither: I care that the fellow next door has access to first world quality food, shelter, education, and medicine without means testing. I also see no evidence that this desire is at odds at all with my lifestyle as a quasi-middle class person living comfortably.

marcoperaza 7y ago
That has nothing at all to do with the information in this chart though.