Why Many Rich People Don’t Feel Rich

[bjl584]

That's an interesting little article. I think that I would feel very rich if I was earning $250,000 a year even if my neighbor was earning $2million. It's not what you earn anyway. It's what you spend.

[jeffrey]

But there seems to be a broader fissure underlying this discussion: why don’t people at the 90th percentile of the income distribution feel particularly rich?

The answer is simple: because any Americans who are richer than this cohort are so much richer.

At the request of The New York Times, the Tax Policy Center estimated Americans’ income percentiles for households across American in 2010. The numbers were calculated by Rachel Johnson, a research associate at the center, and were rounded to the nearest $100. The chart below to see where these income breaks fall...

Why So Many Rich People Don't Feel Very Rich - NYTimes.com