Rich People
August 28th, 2008 |So, using Ben Stein’s figures, if he books a speaking engagement just once a month he makes a half million dollars a year. Just for speaking. I think Stein makes a hell of a lot more money than that. And yet he refers to himself as “upper middle class”.
I think that there must be some kind of mental phenomenon that rich people have so they really believe that they are not rich. I don’t want to say that it is a “defect” that they “suffer” from because, let’s face it, they are rich so why feel sorry for them? Who cares if they are happy or not. If they can’t figure out a way to be happy with all that money then they are probably never going to be happy.
So how would I define “rich”? How about personally making ten times the USA median annual household income level? That would be a half a million dollars per year. You may not be “rich” in savings at that point, but you are living “rich”.
I think people like Ben Stein simply have no idea how little money a lot of people are living on in this country.
26 Responses to “Rich People”
Rich people suck.
If Stein is “upper middle class” I should be getting welfare checks by that definition!
From my personal experience, the very rich retirees I’ve encountered seem to have a real disdain for the middle classes that they were born into. I’ve got no idea why this is, especially coming from a lower-middle class upbringing myself. I went to school with many of these people, and I know who their parents were and how hard they worked to raise their children back in the 50’s. Maybe it’s just old fashioned greed. I seriously don’t know.
shouldn’t be hard to work out a nice standard deviation based on the median US income and statistically define rich…
i’d just kinda guess that 10x the median certainly would be filthy rich. heck maybe he’s got a $20,000/month mortgage to pay? so he doesn’t “feel” rich? I dunno…
It’s interesting that they aren’t rich when it comes to their own wealth, but those “greedy unions” expect their members to earn 80 grand a year at the top of their scales.
Cynical conservatives like to mock Obama as some phony celebrity “Barackstar,” but I don’t think Paris Hilton has written two bestselling books.
And the shame of the Obamas having Ivy League educations. Not like McCain’s bottom-of-the-barrel performance at the taxpayer-subsidized US Naval Academy (a well-regarded institution on its own).
… and if you only clear a couple million a year, it’s easy to feel “not rich” when you run in circles with CEOs and trust fundies clearing tens of millions a year. Ben Stein isn’t the guy buying all those fancy condos and islands around Dubai.
Ben Steins a freaking moron. Didnt he just make some documentary attacking science and evolution with the premise: scientific theory created the holocaust;therefore, there is no truth in science and all scientific findings or theory should be censored by non scientists. For a Jew–or anyone– to say this is utterly ludicrous and shows you that as long as youre representing the reactionary right youll always find a media outlet for your half baked ideas. I think he’s a regular columnist in the WSJ
@gewilli: You hit the nail on the head. It’s easy not to feel rich when you are pushing the limits of your budget to live a particular lifestyle. Expensive car, big house, nice clothes…it all adds up and can leave one feeling cash poor.
However, sympathy from someone making less than $40k a year would be hard to find.
I think it is an American phenomena that people on both sides of the median think they are middle class. People think ‘upper class’ is private planes. It’s not. It’s much closer to owning a house and two cars, and having two weeks of vacation a year.
Half a million a year is in the top 1% of incomes. Stein is a loon.
But only rich people decry “class warfare”.
When people label others rich, poor, white collar, blue collar, Republican, Democrat is all an attempt to set up barriers. As long as we allow ourselves to label and be labeled, you will have haters.
Take the time to judge the person and not make opionions just because of a label that has been bestowed upon them. You will be amazed by how many great people are out there and how many more friend and associates you will have.
If there was one pot of finite amounts of money perhaps your desire for regulated economies would make sense. That isn’t the case though. The harder we work, and the more ingenious we become the pot of wealth becomes larger for everyone. We need a free economy that rewards ingenuity, not criminalize it.
Wrong post Taylor, totally irrelevant. No argument for regulation here.
It’s actually the case that the poor also rarely describe themselves as poor. Nearly everyone in the US believes they are “middle-class”, no matter how much they actually have or make.
What really matters is who you’re hanging out with. A half mil is poor on 5th Ave, but stinky-rich in Peoria. If you wanna get rich quick, move to a different neighborhood.
By regulated economy I mean wealth redistrubution, ie tax the rich give to the poor. On the face I’m all for it. As you dig deeper you find that it doesn’t really work. Just ask yourself why the 42nd president reformed wellfare.
As long as we allow ourselves to label and be labeled, you will have haters.
What about when we label ourselves “POW”?
I think there was some context lost in this video. He was talking about wealthy business owners and those that control enormous amounts of capital. Ben Stein is not one of those people. Although, I would him rich.
… would *call* him…
It’s like watching a bunch of spoiled supermodels say they aren’t skinny.
Just to put things in perspective: According to the UN, assets of just $2,200 per adult place a household in the top half of the world’s wealthiest. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world, just $61,000 in assets is needed. If you have more than $500,000, you’re part of the richest 1%.
That said, many high income people are also in debt up to their gills. They have high income, but negative worth. These people are debt slaves.. they are forced into servitude by their loans which really dampens a person’s feeling of wealth.
If you’re middle class in America you’re filthy rich compared to half the world population who lives on less than $2/day which is more than that daily latte, big mac or half a gallon of gas burned to go to the mall.
Bill - thanks for the world perspective. I do think the U.S. looses site of how well things are here.
Now that being said, it is sad we still have citizens that need health care, and children that don’t have enough food. But these are things we can solve, unlike the nations that comprise the lower end in your statistics.
But… give up my latte? (cough cough)
Taylor: Who is talking about wealth redistribution? And most taxes are on income and consumption anyway, not wealth. Maybe you are looking for the tax post?
TANF was replaced by AFDC and the EITC, and the EITC is still being expanded because it works great.
Plan B, you’re right…should of been on the other one.
EITC works great??? I remember when I lived in the suburbs and I helped my neighbors out with their taxes. They had a 19 year old daughter who was a single mother. They totally supported her and her child. She got the EITC, and it was a healthy amount. She spent it on a car that was later re-possessed cause she didn’t make the payments, got a bunch of dumb tattoos and moved into a brand new apt paid for by the govt, which she later trashed…. works great….
Skib - Do you have an example of a single mother without a safety net that this program has worked for?
Also, where the tatoos in naughty places?
@Skibby: Dude, this sounds like an example of an irresponsible user rather than a broken system.
I’m basing my assessment of the EITC on nationally representative samples, not anecdotes. As you can imagine, most folks aren’t as dumb as that.
You think my neighbor was the only person to take advantage of a program? The problem with wealth redistribution (and that’s what the EITC is), is in the administration of these programs. The people who really need the help for circumstances out of their control, don’t get the help. I can come up with many more “anecdotes”, despite what your “ivory tower” national representative samples tell you…