Catherine Rampell writes about Obama calling the $172,000 a year salary of the departing press secretary Robert Gibbs “relatively modest” while his salary in fact falls in the top 10% of the USA income distribution. Catherine draws a predictable conclusion – Why So Many Rich People Don’t Feel Very Rich:
“It is perhaps no wonder, then, that so many people who are statistically rich call themselves “upper middle” or even “middle class.” They are much, much richer than lots of poor people, but also much, much poorer than some very visibly rich people. From their perspective, they truly are in the middle. It’s the income version of China’s “Middle Kingdom” syndrome.”
So during the great recession and the punishing unemployment, the 100K-a -year slaves feel devastatingly poor when comparing themselves to the concentrated oligarchic wealth of the visible global élite. Since the oligarchs don’t really reside here or pay proportional taxes, this makes pretty much everyone else left in the country miserable and broke to the bone.
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