CNBC Delivers Another Hot Take On Why People Making $400,000 Are Barely Getting By
Politics 10/12/20 4:35am Read time: 6 minutes
This may not be the stupidest argument against taxing the rich we've see lately, but it's trying hard.
By Laura Clawson
Joe Biden is promising to raise taxes only on families making $400,000 or more each year—the top 1.8% of taxpayers. Here to explain why that will really hit middle-class families is CNBC with the latest contribution to the “why rich people are really barely making it” genre. No, really. Experts say!
“Based on the expenses, a $400,000 household income provides for a relatively middle-class lifestyle,” one personal finance website guy claimed. “A middle-class lifestyle is defined as: owning a home, having two kids, saving for retirement, saving for college, going on modest vacations several weeks a year, and retiring in one’s early 60s.” Ha ha ha, yeah, okay. In other words: “A middle-class lifestyle is defined as: a bunch of stuff out of reach for most people in this country who consider themselves middle-class, transferred to one of the 10 most expensive cities in the country. Middle-class, I tell you!”
Let’s take a look at the sample budget provided for a family with $400,000 in income in an expensive city. These highly representative imaginary people end the year with just $34 left over after all their budgeted expenses—really a hand-to-mouth existence all provided courtesy of CNBC wanting to argue that Biden’s proposal to tax the rich is mean to the middle class. So how does this family spend the $260,530 that’s left after taxes and $39,000 in 401(k) contributions? (Because they have to be able to retire in their early 60s or they won't count as middle-class, apparently.)
We’re starting with a family of four, which is a perfectly reasonable family size, but let’s not forget that poor people are often judged for having “more kids than they can afford.” So this “middle-class” family in the top 2% of earners is getting a pass on something that might be questioned if they were trying to scrape together a full-time schedule at McDonald’s.
Posted with permission from Daily Kos
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/10/cnbc-delivers-another-hot-take-why-people
Every fucking election cycle the public gets the whining self pity rich people not having anything left over BS...and screen capture headlines..........."Warning Signs From the Wealthy"......FU............
I lost my 401K when United went bankrupt under the ESOP program that Wall Street hated.
I pay more in taxes with my Social Security than the asshole presently sitting in the white house and these $400,000 a year assholes don't have enough for vacation, fuck that shit, and I pay more in taxes than lets say Wells Fargo, Amazon have paid in taxes which is fucking zero, and I don't make enough to hide in the Cayman Islands...............
= new reply since forum marked as read
I'm so sick of "the system" and the wealthy not paying their share of taxes, which would solve so many poverty issues.
In the end it simply comes down to GREED. And I've had enough of the greedy fuckers and their GOP enablers.
They can always give it to me. I'll shoulder the burden! 
