re: The wealth divide: Perceived versus actual household income in the United States.

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There are CPI calculators that can tell you what it is. You can not trust it if you want but it says100k in Jan 2020 is 126k today.

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I know those are out there and I also know they are usually pretty full of shite.

The items in the basket and their relative weighting create the issue. For example, the impact of the cost of gas or groceries are not the same for a $65k earner as a $150k earner but they are treated the same on the calculator.

People screaming about the “wealth gap” always ignore the only thing that actually matters: the lifestyle gap. And that has never been smaller than it is today.

2,000 Years Ago (Rome):
Rich lived in villas with servants, education, imported food, and political power.
Poor lived in crowded insulae (tenements), constant fire risk, limited protein, chronic hunger, no schooling, and no mobility.
The gap was enormous.

1,200 Years Ago (Medieval):
Rich had castles, horses, stored food, some security and primitive medicine.
Poor had mud huts, famine, plague, dirty water, and zero literacy.
Another massive gap.

700 Years Ago:
Rich had meat, books, education, warm homes, and travel by horse.
Poor were malnourished, uneducated, and rarely traveled beyond a few miles.
Completely different worlds.

200 Years Ago:
Rich had carriages, large homes, private doctors (mostly ineffective), and better diets.
Poor lived in unsafe housing, had high child mortality, and no medical care.
The gap was still enormous.

100 Years Ago:
Rich had early cars, electricity, refrigeration, and private hospital rooms.
Poor had outhouses, coal smoke, overcrowding, and food insecurity.
The gap remained large.

50 Years Ago:
Rich had multiple TVs, luxury cars, private schools, and early computers.
Poor had basic cars, one TV, limited travel, and limited healthcare access.
The gap was shrinking but still there.

Today:
Rich and poor alike have cars safer than past luxury models, AC, clean water, sewage systems, refrigeration, year-round food, smartphones, the same internet, streaming entertainment, modern medicine, MRIs, anesthesia, antibiotics, air travel, electricity, and paved roads.
The rich get nicer versions, but the functional lifestyle is nearly identical. This level of equality has never existed in human history.

Caveat:
The real divide today isn’t rich vs. poor individuals. It’s developed regions vs. undeveloped regions. Some nations built rule of law, stable institutions, innovation, and economic freedom. Others didn’t. That’s where the true gaps remain.

And one thing hasn’t changed across all 2,000 years: tyranny is the historical norm. Most of the world, then and now, lives under corrupt or authoritarian systems. The divide between free and unfree societies explains far more about human inequality than the wealth-gap talking point ever will.

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that's the great thing about money. it's freedom from want and fear

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You've never studied the history of any major civilization obviously

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I’d say around $175k is like $100k pre-covid.

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That’s a damn good comparison. I’ve been around the 200k mark for about 7 years, 150k the five years before that, I’ve got fewer bills now than I did pre-COVID and I had more money laying around in 2019. As a matter of fact, I took 3 vacations from April 19 to April 2020, paid cash for all of them, one being Disney, and put in a pool that year too.

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Though the price of goods and services across the economy would have broadly tracked the same trend, you can imagine the psychological impact of continually being paid less for the same work.

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Thanks for spelling this out for me. This never occurred to me before. This justifies inflation in more palatable terms.

bullshite

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We became the most stable county when the wealthy were taxed at 91% once they hit 200,000$. This is just a frickin fact,

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Are you talking about the stable period that had us fighting two world wars sandwiched between a decade long depression followed by racial strife, protests, assassinations, and the capped off by Vietnam, stagflation, the oil crisis and Jimmy Carter?

Is that the stable period you mean? Is that a frickin fact? Did you learn this at an HBCU?

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We became the most stable county when the wealthy were taxed at 91% once they hit 200,000$.

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You are wanting SOMEBODY ELSE to pay 91%.

frick you

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You are wanting SOMEBODY ELSE to pay 91%.

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He'd better be careful what he asks for, as pointed out earlier, he just might get it .... forced to actually pay his "fair share."