> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Blade Blade
> >To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> >Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 7:44 PM
> >Subject: Working Class
> >
> >
> >How much percentage of the population is the working class,
> >middle/professional class, and upper class? I would like
> >statistics for both the US and other countries. Thank you.
> >
> >====================
> >
> >To be binary:
> >
> >The top 1-5% vis a vis everyone else. That's right even if you
> >make $100k with a family of 4 with mortgage, car payments and the
> >like, you're working class. So get over it.
> >
> >Ian
>
>
> There's a big difference between the top 1% of households and the top
> 5% of households.
>
> Let me enunciate as gospel the rule-of-thumb that Bob Litan and I
> agreed on: that more than 3 times your current consumption level
> strikes you as absurd and wasteful luxury. The median family income
> in America today is going to be about $54,000 this year. Taking a
> rough guess at the progressiveness of the tax code, you would need an
> income of about $220,000 to get you to the point where, from the
> perspective of the median, you are starting to buy stupid and
> pointless luxuries that nobody really needs... That gets you down to
> 2% of families in the upper class.
>
>
> Brad DeLong
>