Please, *please* stop with the "$200K/yr is not wealthy" stories.

The latest is from Toronto Life - which brings you the story of Jonathan Kay who makes only $196K/yr. Poor him.

The exact meaning of prosperous, of course, depends entirely on one’s perspective. Last fall’s Occupy protesters were keen to demonize the so-called One Per Cent—the monocled, yacht-owning multi-millionaires who are now greed personified. However, the threshold for the top one per cent of income earners is much lower than you’d expect: $196,000, in the latest Statistics Canada numbers. That’s no small amount of money, but hardly the means for a life of leisure. In an increasingly pricy city like Toronto, where we pay a premium for everything from milk to car insurance, $196,000 can seem positively middle-class.

Break it down, and it translates to roughly $10,400 a month, after taxes. For many Torontonians, that $10,400 disappears fast. Thousands go to the mortgage. For those with young kids, daycare can cost upwards of $1,500 a month. There are the car and RSP payments, wardrobe refreshes, utility bills and something to set aside for when the furnace inevitably conks out. Plus the cost of the sushi, pad Thai and butter chicken that we order in three nights a week—because we’re all too tired to cook by the time we get home from work.

Right.
You've got a car.  Actually, it turns out you have a couple...
"Wardrobe refreshes" - no comment.
"Something to set aside for when the furnace..conks out" - really?  Set aside?
"Sushi"?
I seriously wish this was a joke, but it looks like it isn't.

I could go on, but I'll leave it to this gawker rant. Go read it.

The Top 1% Must Stop Insisting They’re Not Rich Right This Instant

Take a deep breath. Relax. Center yourself. Think about your bank account. Now. Are you ready for an article explaining why $196,000 per year is not that much money? Good.

[...] And here we see the fundamental dishonest characteristic of each and every article which advances this particular enraging argument. "Sure, it's an objectively large sum of money," they say. "But it is far smaller after I spend it."

No shit.

Money pays for the costs of life. That is what money does. You can't fucking argue that, hey, your money doesn't go that far after you've already spent it. You used it! Paying taxes and paying bills and paying the mortgage and putting money in a retirement fund and going out to dinner are the things that money gets you. You asshole. Just because you didn't blow it all on jewelry, caviar, and cocaine doesn't mean you didn't get anything out of it. This argument is like a man eating a hearty meal, licking his plate clean, then turning to a starving person and saying, "Look, we're in the same boat. My plate is empty too!"