Ezra Klein touches on one of the arguments that always comes up when President Obama talks about rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which he places at those making more than $250,000 a year: the relativity of wealth. Obviously, $250,000 doesn't make a family living in New York City feel as rich as, say, a family making the same amount would in rural Kansas.
What Ezra points out is something people should already know, and that's that a salary of $250,000 places you at the top of all families in even New York City. A little over 6 percent of families make more than $200,000. Of course, cost of living is higher, so a family with an income of $250,000 might spend much of it housing, private schooling, etc., but the things we choose to consume don't make us not rich. Moreover, the idea that the high cost of living completely negates that level of wealth is really disrespectful to the vast majority of New Yorkers who make much less and still manage to live: The median income for the city is a mere $55,000, just a few thousand more than the national median.
I would also say this argument comes most often from people who don't at all live in New York, but who want to raise the specter of a hypothetically middle-class family suffering because of where they live to a middle American audience who don't understand what New York City is really like. Appropriating New York to make a political point New Yorkers wouldn't necessarily make is something conservatives and Republicans are doing a lot right now, at the same time they continue to demonize it in ways it sees fit.
-- Monica Potts
