[phil21]

You are correct. But you are commenting in a place where mid six figure engineers consider themselves middle class and not wealthy.

Yes, the top 20% pay the vast majority of taxes and are taxed at the highest rate until you get into the ownership classes where income goes down and capital gains goes up. Plus that’s when all the tax deferral strategies come into play.

And yes, by all reasonable definitions if you are in the top 20% either income or wealth you are categorically wealthy.