What's Considered Rich In The USA.

[raven818]

This post by songman was in a thread regarding a female with 15 kids.
I'd like to know what you consider rich, and why.

By Songman:
Typical Obama supporter. I mean, he did get elected by telling her and everyone like her that he was going to take care of them. Convince poor people that the rich folks are the reason for their lot in life and tell them about 'redistribution' and that will get you elected.

I have a roof over my head, food in my belly, two TV sets and two cars. One car is 10 years old, the other is 19 years old ( bought new for my wife ) and has 53K miles on it.

I live off my SOC and a small income from an annuity. My wife lost her job and has not been able to find employment, resumes going out weekly..nothing.

Our needs are barely met, but we're happy with what we have. By no means have we ever been what I would considered rich. But, with what we do have, I think the folks with their hands out would think we are.

How much money and personal property makes a person rich. The feds say 250K. I completely disagree that figure makes one rich.

Whats your opinion?

[Willie]

I do think people with thier hands out would consider you rich. Rich is such an elusive target. I guess the govt has to try to find a definition of rich so they can soak'em. I think maybe house count.....if you don't know how many you own you must be rich. In any event I think all of us are taxed to the limit. I will be on the no new taxes side this time too. Cut expenses whatever it takes and leave us alone! There will always be poor around,it is not our job to support all of them. I help where I can -for example my chickens lay enough to make 200-400 breakfasts a month for our church friends, but I give nothing to beggars on the streets. I think if you have a warm and happy home...you are rich.

[cycloneman]

I consider RICH in different catagories.

Low rich. You dont have to work at all, and all your needs are met. What this means is not having the stress to go to work or find a job or have to meet payroll. YOur house is being paid, or paid for and also all your expenses, inc food. It seems to me that many we call poor fit into this catagory



Middle Rich. YOu have enough money to afford what you dream for and never HAVE to work to meet your needs. For example I would have 1000 acres in SW TX high fenced with a house on it and a farm. This would only happen once i have retired or became rich enough to do it. The key here is again you dont have to work.

High Rich. TO me is all of the above + enough money in other currencies, some in foreign currency, Gold, and Silver to amount to 15 million. The difference here is that you have enough money in gold and silver to withstand global problems.

These are my definitions of rich not Wealth.

Wealthy to me means money in the billions. I guess that is another discussion.

[raven818]

Originally Posted by Willie

I do think people with thier hands out would consider you rich. Rich is such an elusive target. I guess the govt has to try to find a definition of rich so they can soak'em. I think maybe house count.....if you don't know how many you own you must be rich. In any event I think all of us are taxed to the limit. I will be on the no new taxes side this time too. Cut expenses whatever it takes and leave us alone! There will always be poor around,it is not our job to support all of them. I help where I can -for example my chickens lay enough to make 200-400 breakfasts a month for our church friends, but I give nothing to beggars on the streets. I think if you have a warm and happy home...you are rich.

I read in this morning paper something I felt was behind this so called tax break, but wasn't sure of it.

The tax break is coming from the amount of taxes withheld from your social security payments ( per harry reed ). Let's look at that for a moment.

You pay less SOC taxes today. Money comes out of your eventual monthly payment. SOC is already being drained. It's due to be gone by 2030, or 2050, I don't remember which. Most folks starting in the job market, now believe they will never receive a dime in return for the taxes they're paying now.

Tax break? Nah, ain't true. " The money being awarded for the tax break will not cost the American people a dime ". Uh-Huh.

[Songman]

Good idea for a post, Raven. I'll give you my thoughts on it...

You mentioned that the Feds say $250k. Is that the number they finally settled on? During the election campaign as Obama/Biden were trying to buy all the 'poor' votes, they kept fluctuating between $250k, $200k, and even as far down as $150k. Personally, I think they were just feeling it out to see what they could get away with.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Feds consider $30k to be the poverty level. Actually it may be more now. That is what it was about 5 years ago. You and I both know that $250k is not rich and $30k is not poverty. But that is how they draw those lines to establish their class warfare.

But if you watched any of the OWS videos you'll see that they didn't even put a number on it. One of those goons stood there talking about the 'bourgeoisie' and feeling all superior for using that word. He actually went so far to say that a local restaurant owner was part of that group and should be taxed more to support.... Support who? I can only assume he meant people like him. People who would rather complain about his lot in life than do something about it. The local restaurant owner was probably not making $250k/yr. But he was supporting his family. He was supplying jobs so others could support their families. He was buying products for his business so others could support their families. But to this OWS guy, he was the problem.

So what do I think is 'rich'? Well, I've made close to $200k in my lifetime. I was not rich. I wasn't struggling either but I live a fairly meager lifestyle other than my toys. On the other end of the spectrum, I have lived on $8000 a year when I first got into music too. Definitely had to change my lifestyle but I made my choice. I couldn't penalize anyone but me or expect anyone to support me. I feel the same about all those people.

Some people will probably not agree but I don't even consider a million dollars rich anymore. Definitely a good lifestyle but you have to hit multiple millions in my opinion to be rich. But with that said, I am totally against penalizing these people who are successful. For a couple of reasons. One, is that they are already paying the bulk of the taxes in this country. Two, they are the ones who are largely making it possible for the rest of us to work and support our families.

Long answer and some will likely not agree, but that is my thoughts on the issue.

[raven818]

BHO is going to run his entire campaign on taxing the rich. He's got nothing else to say, because everything he said to get elected in the first place is garbage, and everybody knows it. The so-called RICH can't begin to get us out of a 15 trillion dollar debt, even if they gave it all. Why don't he just go to soros and get him to kick in his billions ( current and future )?

[herohog]

When I was working hard and only making 30k/yr, I thought 60k was rich.

When I was making over 70k/yr, I KNEW that _I_ DANGED SURE wasn't rich!

[Songman]

More entitlements... paid for by the rich. Or at least that is what he will tell them to get their votes. Of course that is how he got elected in the first place. But as far as I can see, he hasn't really helped anyone.

[whymememe]

I spend all I get anyway. As long as I'm not using the credit cards at the end of the month, I'm rich.

[Python]

What I consider rich...debt free, healthy, comfortable, and most of all content.