[s1artibartfast]

>Sad to say, $200k is not middle class. $300k is the line, nowadays. Very few of us are middle class, in the sense that our grandparents could be even on a regular wage. That is, there is essentially no middle class in the US anymore. Income is distributed strictly bimodally.

If you think <300k/yr is not middle class, I think we are coming from such different places that we cant have a meaningful discussion.

I'm just going to put this out there:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distri...

[ncmncm]

You have displayed just the left-hand lobe of the bimodal US income distribution. The other bump is way off to the right. Middle-class, if there were one anymore, would be at the dip in the middle, where I said, just off-screen. The goal has been to develop and maintain a permanent underclass who are just barely well enough off that any change seems to threaten to knock them into homelessness, yet imagine they are doing lots better than people with brown skin.

The propaganda message is that any improvement for the people at far left (with brown skin, in particular) would be at the expense of people immediately to their right. The other lobe, off-screen, that could afford everything, is invisible. The program has been a fantastic success. Champagne corks are popping every year, but most especially in 2020, when the right lobe shifted quite a ways further right.

I have some relatives in the other lobe. Their lives are very different from ours. Their kids' lives are very different from our kids'.

[s1artibartfast]

This is the entire distribution. The last bucket is everything greater than 200k. When you look at it plotted out, it is a long tail.

[ncmncm]

To track where the money is going, you have to multiply the count in each bucket by the value on the bucket.

And, get the income not reported as "household income". Income of most millionaires does not show up on there. Jeff Bezos's and Trump's incomes are not on there.

[ncmncm]

I guess you don't know about family trusts.