dancingsinging (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dancingsinging) wrote2012-05-10 09:33 pm
dancingsinging) wrote2012-05-10 09:33 pm
Thoughts about "rich people" gallup poll
I was listening to NPR's Marketplace show today, and they had their weekly thing with the main Gallup poll guy. Today they were talking about a poll they did on American attitudes about "rich people." Listening to it inspired a couple thoughts:
1 - They kept saying stuff like, "Despite all the talk about the 99%, most Americans don't have a problem with rich people." Which totally made me mad because it seemed so mis-representative of the Occupy folks' point. The Gallup guy was completely conflating "people with a backyard pool and a Mercedes" with "the 1%." Whereas the whole point of the 1% thing is for people to notice how the 1% are more like making millions of dollars annually just in investment income. Also, I never got the idea that the Occupy folks thought the problem was the rich people themselves, but rather the system of economic inequality and injustice under which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I don't think anyone was trying to stir up a grudge against rich people. It's the system, not the people!
2 - Apparently, according to the poll, most Americans define "rich person" as making more than $200k or $250k per year, though the number individuals reported as "rich" varied a lot depending with how much the person being questioned made themselves. Among younger folks, some large number of people (I think >50%?) thought they were at least "somewhat likely" to be rich themselves some day. Which made me reflect about my economic situation. As a family, we make far, far less than $200k per year. But I actually feel pretty dang "rich." I mean, we live in a nice house, we send our kid to private school, I never worry about whether we can pay our bills, I buy whatever groceries seem best for us to eat without too much consideration of the cost, and if I want to do something like go to Wiscon, we can usually swing it financially. It's such a far cry from when we were calling my sister to ask for help making rent and occasionally seriously splurging by splitting a $5 burrito at the burrito joint. Without even getting into how damn rich I feel to have unlimited access to clean drinking water, hot water on tap, and a climate-controlled place to live, it seems to me that I have a really nice lifestyle. But I don't think we even qualify as "upper middle-class." I think we're just "middle middle-class." Which just leaves me scratching my head about why people think you need $200k/year to be rich? I guess we do drive cars that are 15 - 20 years old and don't do a lot of status-expenditure. But still, it seems strange.
1 - They kept saying stuff like, "Despite all the talk about the 99%, most Americans don't have a problem with rich people." Which totally made me mad because it seemed so mis-representative of the Occupy folks' point. The Gallup guy was completely conflating "people with a backyard pool and a Mercedes" with "the 1%." Whereas the whole point of the 1% thing is for people to notice how the 1% are more like making millions of dollars annually just in investment income. Also, I never got the idea that the Occupy folks thought the problem was the rich people themselves, but rather the system of economic inequality and injustice under which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I don't think anyone was trying to stir up a grudge against rich people. It's the system, not the people!
2 - Apparently, according to the poll, most Americans define "rich person" as making more than $200k or $250k per year, though the number individuals reported as "rich" varied a lot depending with how much the person being questioned made themselves. Among younger folks, some large number of people (I think >50%?) thought they were at least "somewhat likely" to be rich themselves some day. Which made me reflect about my economic situation. As a family, we make far, far less than $200k per year. But I actually feel pretty dang "rich." I mean, we live in a nice house, we send our kid to private school, I never worry about whether we can pay our bills, I buy whatever groceries seem best for us to eat without too much consideration of the cost, and if I want to do something like go to Wiscon, we can usually swing it financially. It's such a far cry from when we were calling my sister to ask for help making rent and occasionally seriously splurging by splitting a $5 burrito at the burrito joint. Without even getting into how damn rich I feel to have unlimited access to clean drinking water, hot water on tap, and a climate-controlled place to live, it seems to me that I have a really nice lifestyle. But I don't think we even qualify as "upper middle-class." I think we're just "middle middle-class." Which just leaves me scratching my head about why people think you need $200k/year to be rich? I guess we do drive cars that are 15 - 20 years old and don't do a lot of status-expenditure. But still, it seems strange.