Lacking self-awareness - the middle class

I've had a poll running on my blog for the last week asking people what the upper limit is on the middle class. It would be interesting to graph people's responses against their income. A mentor of mine has said that "rich" simply means 10x more than I currently make, whatever that may be.

The median of my statistically insignificant poll was $150K and the mean was $235K (such graphs always skew right. Here are a few stats for you:
* 80% of Americans define themselves as middle class (effectively everyone)
* 4% of Americans define themselves as upper class
* 67% of Englishmen define themselves as working class (lower class - effectively everyone)

Statistically, the true middle (median) in the US is $42K. The question is how far above that median can still be called "middle". If you want to call the middle the middle three quintiles of income, that would be $91K. Leaving only 5% at the top, the upper limit would be $166K.

My readership seems to believe (like most Americans) that while their children are all above average, their income is modest and should be much greater, but for now we'll be contentedly middle class. I'm with you.