Mitt Romney: “Middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less,”

[Vekseid]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/exclusive-romney-on-debates-obama-will-say-things-that-arent-true/

“Is $100,000 middle income?” “Middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less,”



Technically, there's some validity to this point of view - on average, those making less than $300,000 per year have been the losers in the past forty years. It's only those who make a half-million or more per year where you start to see breakaway growth in wealth, nearly all of it unearned income (income that they do not have to actually do any work for - 'rentier' income, things like interest, corporate dividends, etc.).

Most people making under $300k, on the other hand, are actually working.

[Sel Nar]

Honestly, between Romney's sharklike glee at trying to stick it to Obama because the president doesn't have an iron grip on the US' entire diplomatic corps, blatantly lying about Obama apologizing (check the timeline; apology for the 'movie' was Cairo's Embassy staff only, and happened before the attacks), his complete lack of empathy (eg. his habit of blaming the victims of violence), and this? Honestly, I'm surprised someone hasn't popped open the Romneybot's circuitboard and replaced it with a giant, steaming mud dragon.

At least if his brain was replaced by a massive turd, he ~might~ have an excuse for his actions.

[Oniya]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/exclusive-romney-on-debates-obama-will-say-things-that-arent-true/

“Is $100,000 middle income?” “Middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less,”

He's hedged his bets with the 'and less' words. You can parse that statement into 'Middle income is less than $200-$250K'  (a range statement with a poorly defined upper bound). 

Although technically that means that someone not earning anything is 'middle income'.

[Callie Del Noire]

He's hedged his bets with the 'and less' words. You can parse that statement into 'Middle income is less than $200-$250K'  (a range statement with a poorly defined upper bound). 

Although technically that means that someone not earning anything is 'middle income'.

I found it incredibly ambiguous in the extreme.  And tells me he has NOTHING in common with the average American.

[Myrleena]

I consider my father middle class. And up until he retired this past year, he was making about $220,000 a year. And he was not as well off as many people like to assume. I'm the youngest of six children. He's done his best to make sure that each of us has had a chance to go to college, but only by reimbursing us for good grades, and I don't think he's given anyone more than 10k for a semester. Was he barely scraping by? No, but he most certainly wasn't rich.

So yes, I agree that Romney's definition of 'Middle Class' is correct...I won't be voting for him, but I agree on this. On the other hand, I won't be voting for Obama either. Both of them have me rather cynical.

[Callie Del Noire]

Most of my life my folks made something around $85K a year.. maybe a little more with our time travelling in Europe and a little less after the textile market died in the late 80s.. and maybe a LITTLE more when my dad went freelance QC rep for Levi Strauss (they ousted a LOT of textile quality assurance staff and other positions coming up on retirement age..then realized they had canned people they couldn't replace) then he retired. To me.. they were 'middle class' most of my life. The folks at the upper end might be Middle class but they would be Upper Middle.. most of my family was Middle or Lower Middle. We worked hard to keep our place..and for the most part the last decade has become harder and harder to stay there.

I'm NOT middle class .. I'm broke, unemployed, living off disability and student support. When I get a job.. I'm hoping for something in the $40 to 50k range a year.. but I expect to never get higher than lower middle (barring winning the lotto)

[OldSchoolGamer]

Financial adjectives are always relative.  Only dollar amounts are absolute.

To someone in a Third World country living on $10 a day, $10,000 is an all-but-inconceivable outlandish hoard.
To a minimum wage American worker, it's a fortune.
To a working-class American, it's quite a bit of money.
To a upper-middle class professional making $120,000 a year, it's a moderate-sized chunk of change.
To the CEO of a mid-sized firm making a half-mil a year, it's no big thing.
To a Fortune 500 CEO, it's petty cash.
To a Bilderberg, it's what you ante up playing a hand of blackjack.

Depends on location.  In the Third World, an income of $60,000 would enable you to live like a feudal lord.  In Middle America, you'd live well.  In inland California, you do okay.  In the Bay Area of California, or Manhattan, you'd be scraping by.   

However, if Romney thinks the average working American is making six figures, he's woefully out of touch.

[Serephino]

Six figures would be nice... 

[Callie Del Noire]

I made a very good living as an E-5 in the navy till I got the boot. I'd be a lot better off if the poison mortgage bonds hadn't killed my TSP savings plan though. I got in late so I had take the high risk ones to catch up. (The proposal waffled around for years.. it wouldn't do to have the soldiers get the same benefits plan the civil service gets... imagine..they might want to get paid better then..)

[bubby]

I am working my body to an early deterioration for barely $20,000 a year, and apparently in my state (according to state agencies) I am considered middle class, albeit 'working' middle class.

Sorry, but living paycheck to paycheck at a job that is breaking me down physically does NOT make me feel 'middle-class'.

[Callie Del Noire]

I am working my body to an early deterioration for barely $20,000 a year, and apparently in my state (according to state agencies) I am considered middle class, albeit 'working' middle class.

Sorry, but living paycheck to paycheck at a job that is breaking me down physically does NOT make me feel 'middle-class'.

You're not. Unfortunately the staties don't like admitting that more folks are poor. Means more work for them.

[Oniya]

To break six figures with a 40-hour work week and two weeks of vacation a year, you would have to be making $50 an hour.  Or, have two people each making $25 an hour.  Looking at wages, that's not happening.

[Iniquitous]

I am working my body to an early deterioration for barely $20,000 a year, and apparently in my state (according to state agencies) I am considered middle class, albeit 'working' middle class.

Sorry, but living paycheck to paycheck at a job that is breaking me down physically does NOT make me feel 'middle-class'.

+ 1 million!!

I grew up with parents who were 'middle' middle class - not rich but doing well enough that they could take a week's vacation in the summer to take us camping or put us in summer camp. We got toys for Christmas, new clothes every school year and had a house (tiny but still a house.) Now? They are below poverty level right with me. Granted, they still have nice stuff - but it is all stuff they purchased before my dad was forced to retire. There will be no more purchasing "the best" for them.

And here I'm tryin for a job that pays $27,800 a year. I still wouldn't cross the poverty line into middle class with that pay.

[Ironwolf85]

Dear Governer Romney, I work at a Burgerking part time, all four members of my household have jobs and we are forced to pool resources.
I am an american... and I must proptly tell you to cease talking about what you don't understand, and have never experienced, in the most direct way possible. now I will speak in slow sentences so you can understand how lower income americans speak.

ffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkk *breath* yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu *breath*

now kindly either get to solving problems, and in the process remove yourself from your red white and blue colored bubble, or do your patrotic duty to future americans and kindly place your cranium inside your anus then throw yourself from the highest elevation in the bain captial building, the roof above your office.
Have a lovely day.

(Wolfie is in a cynic streak tonight)

[gaggedLouise]

Reminds me of that secretary of finance around here who famously remarked "Well, set your goal posts to this: you should see to have a year's wages saved up in the bank. That's the way to go!" (and then she didn't include pensions savings in this). Said at a point in the early nineties when unemployment was worse than it is in the U.S. now - and for another parallel, the stricken banks were getting major assistance to survive.

[Serephino]

What gets me is my only income is Social Security, and according to my state welfare office, I make too much for Medicaid.  I went uninsured for years, suffering from gallstones and kidney stones.  Even when I went in there and told them I was sick, they didn't see any reason why I couldn't cough up $1300 + hospital costs for my surgery. 

Oh, and the best part is that when I told them my boyfriend gave me money for bills they counted it as income.  Yeah, see, as soon as it lands in my hands I can do whatever I want with it.  I could use it to pay my medical bills and just let those luxuries called utilities get shut off.  We get about 23k a year, and we're not starving, but we have to scrape and save for everything.  I give myself ulcers every month trying to figure out how stuff is going to get paid.  That's Middle Class?  When my foodstamps come up for renewal I have to get a bank print out that shows my account nearly empty.  You wouldn't think in matters, but if my proof of assets shows my whole check in my account I get like $35 if anything at all.  My income stays the same, but the amount goes up and down based on what's in my checking account at any given moment.  What the fuck is that...?  Seriously, I have money at the beginning of the month, then these things called bills come in the mail, and then all that money does a disappearing act.  I'm lucky if I don't overdraw.