It ain't what you think it is.

It's a million dollars more than what I've got,
or ever made in my life!

But it's not champagne wishes and caviar dreams here. It's a house in the 'burbs and a Honda Accord in the garage.
It's middle class retirement money, not First Class to the Maldives.

I spoke with a friend of mine and he mentioned his dad, who works at Costco and has a 401k of close to million; along with his wife they’re around a million.

I think he said they’re in their 60s and close to retirement. They’re in a low cost of living state (Kentucky). That’s comfortable in retirement but especially if they have health issues, definitely doesn’t make them wealthy in the way you may initially think.

I'm 68 and worked all my life.

Some folks need to read the book, "The Millionaire Next Door." Many folks like myself prefer financial security over an ostentatious lifestyle.

I had a spendthrift wife that set me back for three years of random spending. Other than that, I have come accustomed to living on a shoe-string. I've tried to throw everything extra into investments.
I just want to retire and not worry.

Monopolaires ! !
There needs to be a return to progressive tax rates to provide social services.
Improve what we have, would be easier.
“that is all”

It ain't what I think it is?

it makes me skeptical!

Some people might be "millionaires" on paper, if their house has gone up in value enough with the crazy housing prices.

I bought my tiny home in 2004 for $100,000. It's now worth $450,000. That means zilch, though, because if I sold it, I'd have to buy or rent something else at the current outrageous prices.

It still doesn't make me a millionaire, but I'm sure there are people out there in the same situation, where it does boost them to "millionaire" status.

A million bucks in a portfolio can safely proviude $40K/yr in retirement income.
Pop the champagne corks.

Or because of their home values. A million dollar home in California really is nothing special now.

Now, I agree about billionaires, especially hedge fund billionaires. That’s why I inherently distrust Steyer.

I can agree with you regarding the billionaires....

Try and convince me of that difference...
One rich person was elected to office who turned his back on the rich
and gave the American People a break. That was F D R.
In my lifetime I never made more than $50,000 in a year,
and you're going to convince me to vote for you??
Go hang out at FoxNews!

1,000 times difference. Being a "millionaire" just ain't that big a deal now.

It´s what (if anything) they do with it that counts. Bill Gates is determined to give away most or all of what he has earned before he dies. Good for him. I´m certainly not eager to dream up some "jealousy tax," as Heiner Geissler put it, just because he did better than I did. One of my best friends in Dallas got really lucky with his work and his investments, and amassed maybe $80 million after taxes. He is not into politics (he does donate to Democratic candidates), and certainly has no intention of spending it on himself. No private planes, and has had the same car for almost ten years. I sure as hell don´t give him suggestions what he should do with his money. He has so far given away $20+ million of what he has made to build a public park in Dallas in a low income area. He donates to money-losing cultural institutions, too (modern dance studios, etc.). He plans to donate most of the rest it, as well, depending on whether or not his wife and son are still alive (most if they are alive, all if they are not). It´s not my place to say we have to act like the NSDAP did in the 1930s, or Ceauşescu in the 1950s. I don´t think we have the right to take it from him because we know better than he does what he should be doing with it.

Between the Germans and the IRS, the two governments want to tax me at 73%. And do what with it? Finance luxury trips for Noem, Patel and Vance? Make sure there are five useless chauffeur-driven German government bureaucrats for every one needed? A jealousy tax is useless unless there is a specific, very benevolent plan for what to do with the extra revenue, and for who is going to administer it. Certainly no right wing elitist like the Trumpanzees. Certainly no socialist, who, whenever they take power, seize assets and spend the loot on themselves instead. Only a completely neutral, benevolent, charitable group of individuals could be trusted to the degree that I would hand over that much extra money to them, and I´m not sure there is an honest, competent group of individuals out there whom I would trust to do enough good to warrant the "Enteignung."

For the record, I do enjoy the significant advantage of neither wanting nor needing anyone to vote for me. Since our income does exceed the equivalent of $50,000, I guess we dodged a major bullet, there! My wife´s pension, after taxes, contributes just short of €1000 per month, though with the cost of living in the Rheinland, that does not exactly land us in the upper echelons, and while her health care is covered by German Medicare, I have no coverage at all other than Humana dental (pays maybe 10% of my out-of-pocket dental) and Blue Cross of Texas (pays pretty much nothing). And no, everything is not free in Germany, despite what utopian websites might tell you. I have to pay 100% of every medical expense I incur there. It´s still way better than paying the €30,000 per year their private health insurance quoted me as a yearly premium.

Since my wife is German, and I still work full time (we are both 74), we might indeed be better off than someone in the States (depending on where) making $50,000. But I don´t know. I care that we are neither starving nor in deep debt, and that our children are not, either. Anything over that is gravy.

Is such an ugly trait in some Democrats.
Without 2026's liberal and progressive millionaires and billionaires there wouldn't even BE a Democratic Party with enough financial resources to compete nationally with the Republicans.
Members of Congress who grew up dirt poor now earn $174,000 a year plus fringe benefits worth nearly that again. It's almost impossible NOT to be a millionaire if you are reelected to a second term.

being able to understand those less fortunate than you,
those without a boat in the driveway,
or a trendy car,
or a house!
Those who know a $400 emergency will break them.

"I believe in the division of labor. You send us to Congress; we pass laws under which you make money and out of your profits, you further contribute to our campaign funds to send us back again to pass more laws to enable you to make more money."

--Boies Penrose

--------

The bottom line in such a government "of the people" is that the majority of politicians at every level of government don't serve the rank and file or "the people" as a whole. They serve themselves and their ruling class handlers who enable them to live fat and large on the rank and file's dime. In return, the rank and file, the working class, and "the people" as a whole get scraps off the ruling class table.

How many politicians will get up on the podium and declare with no mealy-mouth phony bullshit. "America, tonight, let’s make a pledge to promote the priorities of labor and the working class over the priorities of the ruling class and business owners to create a more advanced and prosperous society.”

Not many. The rest rely on the narrative you just provided to avoid all accountability for their complicity in the whole rigged game.

I’m with you, Mr.Bee: I like people who’ve earned the honor.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.

He only has about a million at most with most of that being the money he made as senator.

We need more like him I guess.

It's not a lot anymore. I'm a millionaire at 45 by net worth, and I'm just an engineer in a lower middle class neighborhood.

My wife and I are around the same age and have about that much. I’m assuming you’re in Connecticut being the nutmeg state. It’s also a high cost of living state on average, similar to where I live (California).

But I’m no millionaire

A billionaire is 1000 times richer than a millionaire. If a millionaire were to spend $1000 a day, they would be broke in 3 years. If a billionaire were to spend $1000 a day, it would take 2,700 years for them to run out of money.

the Forsytes (now on PBS).

Tom Steyer was the number one donor to the Democratic Party in 2014. Steyer's association with the Democratic Party goes back to him being a campaign worker for Waltere Mondale in 1984.

And he will carry out the oligarchs and felon4547 policies of elected.

Steyer is a closet repuke!

MANY of today's "Middle Class" are millionaires.

I have a million saved, and I retired as a public school teacher 24 years ago, and am a widow of another for 12 years.

Check their and their families stock and bank accounts, AFTER they're elected.

I'm thinking you're barking up the wrong tree. The amount of insider information they are given, and can play the stock market... Plus investing in military contracts...
This is why there is So much money invested in campaigns! Always follow the money!