I remember when a girl in junior high, on learning the neighborhood I lived in, announced that I must be rich. Whereas in a family with five kids, every penny accounted for, I never had that feeling. We were middle-class, but even after we bought a cottage in New Hampshire, I never felt rich: my parents always managed their money as if next week there wouldn't be any.

They've changed, since they retired, and now we the kids are all wondering about their finances, because they're prone to extravagances they never would undertake when we were young.

Did your mom go to Lockport High School? My dad graduated from there in 1958.

Might have, but she's younger than your dad. Still - small world.

We have no farm heritage, but my parents are farm-heritage adjacent, both geographically (right down the road from the amish village!) and historical/social (my dad worked in coal mines as a kid and my mom's father was a fisherman. and mom packed pineapple at the Dole factory as a summer job).

Oh, and did you know that a $249,999 a year income is middle class?

There were a small number of interesting points which I suspect will go unnoted in the din. First, Sens. Clinton and Obama used different definitions of “the middle class” in answer to Charlie Gibson’s attempt to extract from them a “no new taxes” on the middle class from them. Hillary Clinton defined the middle class as families earning an income lower than $250,000, a definition with which I’d agree. Basically, that’s all but the top 1% of income earners. Sen. Obama’s definition was families earning an income below $75,000. I think that’s an extremely narrow definition. It doesn’t even include all of the fourth quintile who to me are obviously middle class.

[link]

Debate talk reminds me that Emaryn has shown some actual interest in who wins the presidential election. She's for Hillary since all the presidents have been men.

For Victor: Pinsky does a Q&A on modern poetry in Slate: [link]

I'd probably rank "middle class" as going upwards to $150,000 in urban areas with higher cost of living, but once you get above that point, we're talking "upper middle class," IMO.

all this talk of where we grew up and I went looking for my house when I was in kindergarten. there is a great pic on google maps. AND a house for sell on zillow 2-3 blocks away!

They've changed, since they retired, and now we the kids are all wondering about their finances, because they're prone to extravagances they never would undertake when we were young.

Well, now they're supporting two instead of seven, right? That would free up quite a bit of dough!

My parents fall into that bracket, and I'd still consider them middle class (upper middle class, but still). I think it really depends on where you live.

I mean, if this:

Sen. Obama’s definition was families earning an income below $75,000.

is accurate (and I haven't double checked), I'm priced out of the middle-class too, and I'm living paycheck to paycheck in a 2-bedroom apartment.