As a millennial who makes more than they probably should, I feel like this state tows a liberal ethos but it’s totally fake. I couldn’t afford to have 2 kids, a non working spouse, health insurance for the family, a single family detached home, a car, and maybe helping put my kids through school. So I meagerly pick and choose what parts of that “middle class” life I can make reality. I’m bitter, maybe rightfully or wrongly so, that it was much simpler for prior generations. I make 200,000 a year. How much should it take? It’s frustrating to do the damn best I can (which is still generously better than many Americans) yet feel like I’m so far behind. Am I crazy to feel that way? Am I unreasonable in my desire to live archetype middle class life?
Save & move?
Yeah, but salary depends on being here.
Disagree. You have to take substantial risks to take your TC to a different state.
Nobody is forcing you to live where you live. You can easily move to a state where they pay you $70k, and that's plenty in that state.
Health care and other items (cars etc) don’t decrease in price in America’s cheaper areas. You get cheaper housing for much proportionally less salary. California is still a better deal than coding in Montana. I’ll give this state that: there are certainly worse options than being in California as an upper middle class earner.
Yeah but pay and cost of.living can be better elsewhere. You can easily make 150k in a city like Austin or minneapolis and still have a much lower cost of living. If you aren't making over 300k in the bay you're wasting your money and could make a better life in a cheaper city. It's all hype if you aren't making it happen.
Depends on your definition of liberal. If you mean liberal as in liberal democratic then yes, it's kind of the perfect description given the free market capitalist society that is CA. If you mean liberal as is often misused to imply left wing (which are entirely unrelated) then absolutely not as it is about as far from a socialist society as one could imagine.
This state pretends to have a strong social safety net, but like the rest of America, they do jack for actually middle class people to get ahead. There’s a couple policies I like. Capital gains are taxed at marginal rates. But they do nothing for renters. Prop 13 doesn’t do shit for me as a young person who couldn’t buy a house decades ago.
You make $200k. You're not middle class, you're upper class. The "safety net" you're thinking of is costing you money, not benefiting you. CA/Progressive policies do not create wealth. They take wealth to fund the political machine, and a little leaks out for the poor. Nobody with a job benefits from it.
It’s about taxing the middle class , so what do you expect?
The middle class is the backbone of America. Without it, we’d be nothing. The middle class is something worth protecting. Wish the politicians saw it that way.
PSA: for those who feel unsuccessful, like their TC isn't good enough for Blind, check your income percentile: https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/ You're all upper class, not middle class.
I understand the breakdown but it feels dumb to be called upper class when I can't afford any of the things that I associate with upper class. My kids can't go to private school, I don't own a home, I can't take first class flights, I don't drive a Ferrari, etc.
So if what I said is unrealistic, am I the only delusional one? I would’ve thought upper class life would’ve been able to provide more, to be honest. I mean, I’m not trying to sound greedy saying that because I don’t think my original post outlined a crazy list of things. Healthcare, a home, a car? The system is unsustainable if upper class life can’t support all of that. Something must be broken.
That was the 90s bro. They’re over.
Regarding middle class vs upper class: we seem to have this idea that "middle class" means working to live. I think the definitions which fit people's imaginations the best would be: Lower class / poor: can't get a job, live on welfare Middle class: have a job that they can live off of; must work to live Upper class / rich: don't need to work But think about the (earned) income distributions for those 3 groups: $0 $1-1,000,000 $0 Income taxes only apply to income, which means those with jobs pay all the taxes. By this definition, 97% of pre-retirement families are middle class. That's so broad, it can't be a class definition.
Some people use the middle three income quintiles as middle class. Really depends on how you define it. The earned income taxes is a novel approach to me, as lower and upper certainly don’t pay taxes on earned income.
Lower class: mostly receives tax benefits Middle class: pays mostly wage income taxes Upper class: pays mostly capital gains taxes 97% is correct...even doctors earning $400k have to work to earn and really have no power over society. It is the top 0.5% and above who have power over others.
You are not crazy...in fact neoliberalism failed the world... What you are noticing is that despite topline compensation, the real American middleclass lifestyle is unaffordable today. Education Healthcare Retirement Housing These were traded away for cheap junk made in china to appease the lower class masses.
We were sold out for that stellar growth in the 90s stock market. I hate to be anti-trade, since that sounds too Trumpian. But free trade has seemed to be zero sum. It enriched already wealthy people in the US upper class, it reduced poverty in countries like China, but it did it at the expense of the American middle class.
We all get the benefit of being able to buy cheaper/better stuff due to trade / comparative advantage. I can literally order anything in the world and have it delivered to my door in two days. That wouldn’t have happened without the opening up of China trade.
Liberal policies in California are there for poor low income class, not upper middle class which you certainly are, if not upper class. You are paying taxes for those liberal policies so that low income class can have those benefits and safety nets. So either shut up and be a liberal and sponsor the poor with your tax money. Or be a conservative and do not vote ultra left liberals in CA. Or quit your job and become a homeless bum to receive those safety net benefits. You don't get to cry about wanting a liberal state and at the same time only want benefits for yourself. And yes with your income if you save enough and live responsibly, you can afford all that you listed except the home where may be you have to settle for a town home or a very long commute.
I want benefits for everyone except people earning more than 10 million per year. That covers blue collar folks and people like me who earn 2-4x blue collar wages in tech. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is onto something. Her vision will be the mainstream democratic platform in 20 years.
If the benefits are only payed by 10 million holders, it will not be enough. They are much fewer in number. If you tax them too high like 70% still not enough. But they are not going to suck it up and pay 70%, they will simply move to a different state and taking all the business and jobs with them. Its risky business to tax the heck out of rich people. You need to strike a balance.
It's a liberal state, not a communist state.
If it was a communist state, you'd be living in a shack.
Communists give you shack for free. Liberal states charge you $2500/ month for the same shack.