Personally, I don't enjoy reading RedState or LittleGreenFootballs. These folks are disturbed. But when I feel like reading something that raises my blood pressure to unhealthy levels, I turn to the Wall Street Journal. There's always some sort of idiocy masquerading as thoughtful opinion (or as fact).
One of the common threads in the WSJ is that folks who earn five to ten times as much as most of us are "barely getting by". Via Yahoo, here's a
recent article in that vein.
Brother, can you spare a Bentley?
Mr. Duran said he and his wife earn about $400,000 annually, but "I'm barely getting by." They have high property and state taxes, as well as college tuition and savings to cover.
There's two things that disturb me about the Durans. First, they don't know what to do with about $200K in after tax income. Second, apparently they decided to have children. If you're so f**king stupid that you don't know how to budget almost a half a million dollars a year, your first expense should be for a vasectomy.
For the Parnells, their perception of themselves is based on the math. The value of their house is down $60,000. Ms. Parnell says the couple's gross income last year was about $260,000. Taxes, premiums for medical care and deductions for Social Security and their 401(k) contributions cut the gross to about $12,000 per month. The family tithes $1,300 a month at their church. Their mortgage, second mortgage and payment on land they bought is nearly $4,000 a month. Other expenses, including their family car payment, insurance and college funds, as well as basics like food, utilities and donations to charities, leave them with about $1,200 left over each month.
Now, at least the Parnells seem to have a budget, but why do they have a second mortgage? Maybe it's the "land they bought". Even so, after all their expenses and savings and significant gifts to charity they still have an extra grand to spend each month. So let's shed no tears for them. Besides, if the point of this idiot article is to demonstrate how these folks are going to be hit by Obama's tax increase, the Parnells are only $10K over the line.