What do you consider "middle class"?

lower class - blue collar workers
middle class - white collar workers & professionals
upper class - old money who live off of investments

ETA: class is independent of income, IMO.

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So is a "blue collar" worker who makes $110K/year still considered lower class IYO?

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Yes.

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Yes.

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Fair enough.

So then I guess the question would be...what's your distinction between blue collar & white collar?

(Also, I think one can be upper-class without having inherited his money)

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(Also, I think one can be upper-class without having inherited his money)

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Depends on your personal definition of upper class. Old money aren't exactly accepting of new money. Ask people like Donald Trump (denied entry into Palm Beach Country Club) and Bill Gates (rejected by Augusta National).

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Still hard to look at a friend of mine's dad (who owns and is CEO of his own company) make $4mill per year and call him "middle class"

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I doubt he HAS to work at this point.

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So is a "blue collar" worker who makes $110K/year still considered lower class IYO?

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Yes.

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You're joking again, aren't you?

A secretary who makes $18K a year, has two kids, no husband and rents a govt subsidized apartment is middle class, IYO?

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Lower Class: Up to $15K
Lower/Middle: $15K - $50K
Middle: $50K - $250K
Upper/Middle: $250K - $500K
Upper: $500K and above

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I would bump lower up to 20 or 25, the rest I tend to agree with.

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$175K isn't going to get you even in the neighborhood of upper class ATL. Upper class is Tuxedo Road, West Paces, Peachtree Battle, Cherokee Rd.

$175K a year isn't going to get your the $5 million minimum needed to live in any of those places and the $40,000 property tax bill that comes along with it. That's before the $20K ayear in tuition to send your kid to Pace Academy, Piedmont Driving Club membership, etc

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I meant in the metro area...you can live pretty nice in the burbs on that kindof money, imo. But to each his own..the folks you are describing are certainly wealthy.

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what's your distinction between blue collar & white collar?

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white collar - probably college-educated or more, works primarily in an office, participates in the "rat race", etc.

blue collar - probably more of a laborer, more likely high school and maybe some college,

I generally think of it this way:

Proles (low class) tends to look at middle class people as "not really working," as they don't have to sweat in order to get paid, and they never had to. They perceive the middle and upper classes as being coddled.

Middle class people look down on proles as being, well, proles. But they also look down on high class people, because they don't actually work. They see the upper class as full of "trust fund babies" who have no idea what a dollar is worth, etc.

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Still hard to look at a friend of mine's dad (who owns and is CEO of his own company) make $4mill per year and call him "middle class"

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he is upper middle class. Upper middle is basically full of wealthy business owners.

Bill gates is upper middle. Warren Buffet probably is too.

Cornelius Vanderbilt was a prole his entire life.

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Bill gates is upper middle. Warren Buffet probably is too.

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Under your ranking, their kids, grandkids, and everyone after them, would be upper class, though?