Compared to us they are rich for sure. I've never met a "poor" doctor or dentist. Maybe there are those that are working for a specific cause, but I've not met them. I realize those just starting out in the medical field have $$$$ in loans to pay, but down the line, I think most are more than "upper class". I certainly would not call them middle class.

 

Specialists can be rich. GPs are upper middle class.

 

I'd say upper class, not sure I'd include the word middle. Just my .02.

Is there an annual income listed for upper middle class?

 

Some earlier views identified just two rigid classes: the 'privileged class' (royalty, rich bankers, industrialists, employers, etc.) as against the working poor. Especially the post WWII American Dream presented opportunities for workers' families to raise their standard of living and own some property. But the value of property was a major concern of the bourgeoisie, so the middle class came to resemble the rich more and more, at least in that aspect. So the class boundaries are not at all definable or stable. Both rich and poor and in-between are of course just human beings with all their potentials, motives, imperfections, and virtues. We all want a piece of the pie, but our values differ.



I don't know of any standard definitions. It's a continuum. And we may disagree even about the order in a list.

poor
lower class
lower middle class
middle class
upper middle class
millionaire
wealthy
filthy rich

etc.

Still it would be interesting to see how each of us would assign an income range for these rubrics from our own tacit understanding of the terms. I remember that my son claimed to his friends in elementary school that we were rich.

 

I would not actually assign a number to any of the classes listed, (at least not online ) as I'm sure folks would disagree.

However, I would disagree that someone with 5 million is middle class, as listed here in the first post of the thread : Even those Americans worth $5 million or more—among the wealthiest 5 percent—still think of themselves as more middle class than wealthy. According to the survey, 49 percent of those worth $5 million or more define themselves as upper middle class, while 23 percent define themselves as middle class.

 

Makes me think of the comedy, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme by Molière. it's just the opposite to ^^^ this claim - a middle class 'gentleman' with money tries to live like the aristocrats live...

Part of any definition of relative class and wealth standing depends on where one has come from. Family members of a household that is worth 5 mill often come from families that are much less affluent, and they retain the self definition that they grew up with, even though they are much richer than their parents.

 

I guess where you live affects how you think of yourself given a certain net worth. A 3/2 1800 sq ft house that costs $100K in Mississippi will run you around a mil in Cali.

 

Hard to say. The democrats (not being political, just citing the source) have been using couples earning over $250K as "rich" for certain tax proposals. Republicans disagree and cite to cost of living in many metropolitan areas. A GP earns an average of $180K from what I read on-line, so that is why I came up with "upper-middle".

 

US household income of $250,000 puts ya in the top 1.5% -- and that ain't rich!

-- Chuck

 

Maybe not, but it's certainly not poor, and it doesn't fit MY definition of middle class.