what the heck? why am i seeing people who make 200-250k saying they are not rich?

It's demographics.

If someone has more than you, you consider them rich.

$250,000 in some area's can be considered wealthy while in other area's it can be considered middle class.

It's not what you "make", it's what you get to keep that qualifies as 'rich'.

So, if 'Joe the plumber' has $252,000 go through his company, but only gets to 'keep' $42,000 after the business costs (employee pay, social security taxes on all those employees, state, local and federal taxes, license fees, real estate taxes and mortgage payments if he owns the building, massive rent costs if he doesn't own the building, accountants, business insurance, liability insurance for working on other peoples property when they come to fix your water heater, 0bamacare causing employee insurance to skyrocket, maintenance of trucks and building, advertising, just for starters of business costs and hassles) at what point does he qualify as being 'rich'? In our little example here, he's barely out of the damn poverty level as defined by the government (with 8 people in the family).

So, you're looking at it as a typical 'employee' (obviously, an envious liberal leaning democrat type, huh?) NOT as a business owner. And sure enough, a typical 'employee' will NOT make that kind of personal income. BUT neither does 'Joe', bottom line.

Because 'rich' means being able to buy ANYTHING you want without having to budget or worry about it.

So someone who can buy a private Jet and pay for the pilot and it's upkeep is rich and someone who only makes $250,000 per year (even if it is that much in take home pay) cannot anywhere NEAR, afford that.

Also someone who is rich does not need to worry about income since they have enough money to support thema nd their family for the rest of their lives while someone who earns only $250,000 per year (even that much in take home pay) if they lost that income they would have no way to pay their bills or rent or mortgage or for food etc....

Income and wealth are two different things.

Referring to someone as "rich" because of high earnings is a mistake. Many people with higher incomes lives beyond their means and have a lot of debt.

And an income of $250,000 won't go very far in Manhattan!

Most people don't make $250,000 a year in take-home. The problem is, Obama is lumping those who make $250,000 gross in with those who make $250,000 take-home.

Most people who make $250,000 a year also have payroll, payroll taxes, social security and Medicare, both withheld and co-paid to employees, then there's electric bills, water bills, extermination bills, trash bills, property taxes, excise taxes, road and fuel taxes, capital gains taxes, gross receipts taxes, and finally... income taxes, both on the business and out of their personal income.

By the time they pay all that, they're taking home next to nothing.

The fact that so few people, including Democrat politicians, seem to understand all that is exactly what cost the Democrats this past election. It was self-preservation more than political disagreement, and it's a matter of survival for those people at this point.

People get use to a life style and when they're making the same as everyone around them. They don't consider themselves rich. Though I would be ecstatic with making 50k a year!

The average American makes $45K a year. Anyone who says they are not rich though make over $100K a year is either an idiot or embarassed. Some people don't like being rich as strange as it sounds.

That sounds rich to me, but then again I'm an unemployed professional.

Well hell down here in Texas 250K can take you quite far, but up in New York city, not so much. Plus you get the bejeebus taxed out of at that point

In the Exeter-Yale- Morgan Stanley/Mayo Clinic set-

you're a loser and they pointedly,

publicly, gleefully pity you.