While I like the distinction between working and owning class, i think your given distinction for upper class is really bad. "If you own a company that employs

While I like the distinction between working and owning class, i think your given distinction for upper class is really bad. "If you own a company that employs people, you are upper class." Tons of people own companies where they employ people, but still put in 50 hour work weeks and bring home less than $100,000 a year (or worse) without growing the company's value. In this discussion's context, I would put the staff engineer making $600,000 way ahead. Owning cash is still asset ownership. Owning a failing business is not necessary better than owning hundreds of thousands of dollars. Plus, owning stock is still business ownership. The quantity of ownership is important, otherwise any American with an invested 401k is part of the owning class. I prefer the distinction of: "If you need to work to live, you are the working class". Though even that falls apart when talking strictly about income, as different people use their money differently. One person may turn $200,000 salary into early retirement while another lives paycheck to paycheck until death.