Comments on: Poll: Americans Need $150K Income to Feel Rich

By: grumpopolis

grumpopolis — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:57:38 +0000

felicia sinclair, your post assumes that there is a finite amount of wealth in the world, and that the only way for one to gain is for another to lose. that’s an economic mentality that went away several hundred years ago with the death of the mercantile system. modern societies know and accept that wealth can be created…thus, all this, “he got rich because he took my money” is crass class envy social warfare nonsense. but go ahead and keep telling yourself you are economically depressed because the rich keep stealing from you…it may give you some comfort, but it won’t provide any real answers to anyone’s problems. and all this ignores that fact that some people couldn’t give a rip about being rich. whatever happened to simply being comfortable and happy? how about embracing as simpler lifestyle focused more on people and less on stuff? as if you have to either be rich or destitute. my wife and i are raising 3 kids on about $100k a year…we’re neither rich nor poor, and we’re generally happy. we don’t care about being rich and we spend absolutely none of our time worrying about it. horror of horrors, our younger kids wear hand me downs and as awful as it may seem…they actually attend public school…and my wife and i use the phones we get for free from the cell company rather than purchase “smart” phones that add $$$ to our plan…and i drive an 11 year old car with !50k miles on it and i hope to get another 100k out of it before the wheels fall off.

By: grumpopolis

grumpopolis — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:48:20 +0000

interesting that the average american considers $150k to be rich, and the obama administration says $200k for individuals and $250k for joint filings makes one rich. interesting because my local paper (richmond times dispatch) just ran a piece on the highest paid local public “servants” most of them made in the $150k range and many were over $200k. raises the question about whether public “servants” should be getting rich serving the public on the public dime, doesn’t it? after all, if one wants to serve the public as say, a school superintendent (more than one made the times’ list by the way) shouldn’t one be willing to do so for compensation less than that making him/her “rich”? it also pretty much obliterates the argument that these folks would make a lot more in the private sector. after all, if one devotes themself to public service, should the issue of what they could make elsewhere even have any place in the debate?

By: michael1_4

michael1_4 — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:48:04 +0000

Hmmm. That’s strange. If I thought about what income would make me feel “well off” maybe it would be $150,000 but to feel rich? Probably over a million. I find it odd people in this poll answered such a low number. Maybe they didn’t see the difference between “well-off” and “rich”. Well off is you can afford to live in a nice area, have a nice car or two, don’t have to worry about bills, can go on a nice vacation a few times a year, etc. Rich is like Elmer Fudd said, “My name is Elmer Fudd, mansion and a yacht.” LOL

By: Dave Mowers

Dave Mowers — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:34:47 +0000

It cost America 104.6 million dollars to print 9 trillion dollars of currency in 2008 and yet…

According to the I.R.S.;

There are 235,413 persons earning $1,000,000.00 or more a year.

8,274 earning $10,000,000.00 a year or more.

1,470 worth $100,000,000.00 or more.

959 billionaires.

These people own 80% of all publicly traded stock and make 40% of all the money annually.

…and half of the United States doesn’t earn enough income to pay taxes. 1 in 3 children live in poverty, and in 239 counties in the United States at least a quarter of the population receives food stamps, that’s one in four children nationwide according to an analysis of local data collected by The New York Times. 1 in 15 adults live in poverty, one out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program .
“The number of Americans living in poverty grew Monday to 49.1 million, or 16 percent of the total population”- AFP.
“The U.S. Census Bureau released figures Thursday that the number of poor children in the country rose by 1 million to its highest level ever. This increase has brought the total percentage of poverty stricken children to just over 32%.”
Annually the food stamp program is now growing at a rate of 8%. In 2010, 42 per cent of single mothers and 25 per cent of single fathers relied on the stamps. 40% of households are receiving some form of government assistance. 46 million adults are on food stamps. Half of all Americans (156 million) earn $505.00 a week or LESS.

308 million people never get bailed out when they make a bet and it doesn’t pay off.

308 million people don’t get loans directly from the Federal Reserve.

308 million people don’t get free health care, guaranteed pensions, government backed insurance on business deals, government back loan guarantees, tax subsidies, government financing, legislation protecting markets.

By: lew

lew — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:39:52 +0000

I would love to pay $10 0,000 a year in income taxes. That would make me feel rich.

By: technologist

technologist — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:35:49 +0000

Someone asked: “What was the purpose of this poll?”

I’d posit it was to demonstrate how little a large swath of the population understands income or economics in general. Which makes them ripe for demagoguing politicians seeking to exploit their ignorance.

Even for the informed, “rich” is obviously a fuzzy term.

By: Phlox

Phlox — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:41:37 +0000

$150K should be the middle class income… because nowaday… Living Expense is toooo expensive.

By: Felicia Sinclair

Felicia Sinclair — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 17:58:58 +0000

150,000 to feel rich?? and this is what majority of Americans are working towards (the American dream)? Where is all this money going to come from? I guarantee that the richest 1% of Americans will not forfeit their excess wealth to ensure all these people will reach their “American Dream”…so we can expect further global stratification as we continue to rape and pillage poorer countries for their cheap labour and resources so that we can all have over a million dollars in stocks and bonds and earn an annual income of 150K!! – we really need to change the ideals we have!!!!

By: Rose

Rose — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:53:07 +0000

What was the purpose of this poll?

By: Lee

Lee — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:03:57 +0000

My wife and kids make me feel rich just being there.