Now This Is Rich

...or not, depending on how you look at it.  Does earning $250,000 a year and being in the top 6% of income earners in the country make you rich?  Not if you're actually in the top 6%, apparently.  The NY Times Catherine Rampell:

I am constantly amazed by how little Americans know about where they stand in the income and taxing distribution. The latest example is evident in a recent Gallup study, which found that 6 percent of Americans in households earning over $250,000 a year think their taxes are “too low.” Of that same group, 26 percent said their taxes were “about right,” and a whopping 67 percent said their taxes were “too high.”

And yet when this same group of high earners was asked whether “upper-income people” paid their fair share in taxes, 30 percent said “upper-income people” paid too little, 30 percent said it was a “fair share,” and 38 percent said it was too much.

I understand virtually nobody likes to pay taxes, but taxes for the wealthiest Americans continue to remain at historic lows.  Yet two-thirds of the top earners complain bitterly about taxes being too high.  The obvious connection here is that $250,000 a year doesn't make you "rich" in America, even though you're better off than 95% of the country.

The less obvious connection is that the top 1% has so much wealth right now even the rest of the Top 5% is bummed.