Reply #10: I agree, I can't vote in this poll [View All]

When we were newlyweds, we lived just fine down in Texas on a tiny little income. Florida was equally cheap. But up here in Michigan, even though my husband makes much more $$ these days, we're barely making it, especially since my job was eliminated in 2002. One reason is because we are hoarding as much as we can into retirement/savings accounts... we're sacrificing our present comfort so that we'll have something to live on down the road when we no longer have our young, able bodies. It hurts, but I highly recommend it (especially to those of you who have seen Paul Krugman's recent excellent piece on CSPAN)! At my house, we're preparing for a depression, frankly. We're trusting the government to have no safety net for us whatsoever... it's all up to us to take care of our future selves now.

But I digress.

"Middle class" isn't a salary value that can be voted upon.