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ceejayoz

> That's spending 42% of take home pay to have roommates!

So, probably not affected much by a wealth tax.

> $400k per year is about what it takes to run a middle class family w/ 2 kids in such a city.

What? The median household income in NYC is about $63k.

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Almost no one in the US identifies themselves as rich. Most rich people think they are upper-middle-class at best.

My step mother told me that she "can't possibly be in the 1% because she doesn't even have a gardener."

The point is why should someone get progressively taxed when they are attempting to live a "median" American lifestyle. That is a home, a bedroom for each child (etc as the CNBC article pointed out)

They are still making nearly 6x the "median" income in their city so saying they are attempting to live a "median" American lifestyle is disingenuous.

But that's the point. If the median experience, in absolute goods is a certain thing, then why should someone making 6x the median income not be able to afford such a thing. And more topically, why should we introduce additional progressive marginal decrements to what they are able to have?

Middle class is not median. I’d agree that $400k is barely enough to get to the comparable middle class living in NYC. Earning below $100k will get you subsidized college, right?

Per https://statisticalatlas.com/place/New-York/New-York/Househo..., $123k puts you in top 20%; $250k puts you in top 5%. "95%+ of NYC are lower-class" is simply an unsupportable assertion.

> Earning below $100k will get you subsidized college, right?

That's more reflective of the insane inflation in college costs (and our typical "socialize things, but in the silliest possible way" approach in the States) than what lower/middle/upper class thresholds are.

Throughout history 99% were lower class. This is coming back. Not being secure about housing, education and healthcare puts you into the lower class. The middle class is almost dead.

Obviously, the «middle class» is a nebulous term defined differently by different authors, but ability to buy a home, having access to good education and childcare, surviving medical bills and set aside enough retirement money to keep the same lifestyle seems pretty reasonable to me.

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