These morons at U.S. News & World Report are playing games with numbers again. Liberals love to do this to strike up class envy among dumbasses and deadbeats. Of course, this is likely just another Democrat ploy to include more people in Rerun's upcoming tax-and-rape programs.
For example, the morons claim the following.
If you take the more rarefied view of the rich -- the top 5% of earners -- then nationwide, their average household income is about $311,000.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/are-you-rich-heres-how-to-tell.aspxOf course, they don't tell you that the threshold for those greedy people in the upper 5% is only around $75,000. In fact, the threshold for the top 1% is only approximately $186,000. By using averages in their "analysis", they're skewing reality by including the highest income earners in their 5% bucket. It's like saying the bottom 95% earn an average salary of less than $30,000 per year. It's true if you include enough part-time high school and college kids in your analysis, not to mention the fixed income Social Security recipients who only "earn" $12k but living in a $1+M home and holding $MM bank and investment accounts.
And then, there's the basis for their crock-o'-shit argument.
Whatever the number, focusing on income alone overlooks many factors that affect whether people feel rich. Where you live is obviously one of them, since $250,000 buys a lot more in Milwaukee than it does in Manhattan. And, as any parent knows, household income tends to evaporate when the bills for diapers, day care, braces and college come due.
You have to
feel rich? Are they serious??? Everything else is a matter of personal choice and responsibility, something Liberals ignore quite often. Nobody is being forced to live in downtown Manhattan. You can easily move 30 miles out into New Jersey, and purchase a 4,000 square foot home for 15-25% of the cost of a 700 square foot condo in Manhattan. All of those other costs are insignificant when you apply intelligence to your personal economic situation. I'll never understand moronic Leftist logic.