--The point is pretty simple. Elementary actually. 1) Who is making 70K? A mother or father of 4 kids? Single parent? Living in Los Angeles? San Jose? Washington DC? A single person with no children living in a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama? The Oprah 'categories' tell us nothing about what it means to be "upper class".
2) Dockworkers make sometimes over a 100k, ditto machine factory workers, etc. They tend to self-identify as working class, regardless of the arbitrary income measurements of class in Oprah's little table.
3) And, here's the confusing part, it is a measurement of individuals, not households. I make 50k, my wife makes slightly more than that...are we 'upper class' or 'middle class'? if 'upper class' are we in the same 'upper class' as the billionaire Oprah? I mean seriously, the measurements she offers her viewers are meaningless and confusing to the core.
Stephen Philion Assistant Professor Department of Sociology and Anthropology St. Cloud State University St. Cloud, MN
http://stephenphilion.efoliomn2.com/