Top 10% of the population IS pretty damn rich, in the country. You’re making what 4 “middle” (median) families make combined. Sure, it’s not the don’t-have-to-work, inherited-all-my-money top 1%, but you’re highly educated, and in the top 10% in income — that makes you upper middle class…. even here.

Re: the age of the report…. well, sorry, but the census doesn’t run more than once a decade. I’m sure some things have changed, but not that much. The 2006 image (whoops, got an extra , on the end of the URL) shows much the same data.

Separately, the second thought. People get paid more where the cost of living is higher as well. For the same job. Pick your favorite non-area-concentrated job (probably a non-technical job) and your favorite salary website.

I’m opposed to soaking the rich (I voted against the last prop that was going to tax solely the Californians who made more than $1million). However, I don’t think the Bush tax cuts were a very good idea (spending more on credit?) and that those should be allowed to expire, effectively increasing the tax rates back. Looking at that 200-357k tax bracket, someone making $250k AGI will pay an extra 4% on $49300, which is $1972, a whole 0.79% increase. If I made that much, I would feel lucky to not need the tax breaks given to those less fortunate.

So yes, it would fall more heavily on the wealthier areas of the country. Just because he never said it would only affect only the top 1-2% of your peer group doesn’t make it him wrong. I’m really sure it’ll hit the hedge fund managers and Woodside residents much closer to 80% of them. $250k/year, even around here can get you a nice house in a good neighborhood with good schools, and you could still send them to private school.

I’m sure neither yours or my parents made enough to be more than upper middle class of the time we were growing up, here, and we both had good schools, good childhoods, and turned out great, right?

No more than 8% of the households here make more than even $200k ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SF_vs_US_Income.jpg, , http://ccsre.stanford.edu/reports/report_13.pdf see page 6)

I think people get mixed up by what they see around them — if they live in an affluent neighborhood, so they begin to think of it as “normal” … they see themselves as “merely” middle-class and the super-rich making millions a year as the rich. But even in wealthy Santa Clara County, $250k a year is FOUR times what the median household in this county makes in a year.