The rich really aren't like you and me--: They're historically recession-proof. But this time they've been hit hard—and we may all be the poorer for it.
Just who is "rich" in America is a matter of considerable disagreement. No one disputes that Bill Gates (No. 1 on last year's Forbes(<<财富(福布斯)>>杂志)400 list with a net worth of $57 billion) and Warren Buffett (No. 2 at $50 billion) are wealthy or, indeed, that everyone on the Forbes list qualifies (the poorest had a net worth of $1.3 billion). But as you move from billions in net worth to the mere hundreds or many tens of millions, and then to annual incomes of the mere hundreds of thousands, the arguing begins.
In April, The Wall Street Journal ran an article sympathetically portraying families with incomes around $250,000, the level that President Obama has targeted for tax increases. By most measures, these families rank in the top 2 percent to 4 percent of the income spectrum(范围). But many—possibly most—see themselves as "upper middle class" and not "rich," the paper reported.
"I'm not after sympathy," said the wife of a surgeon(外科医生) who makes about $260,000. "What I want is a reality check on what rich means. I can pay my mortgage and can buy some clothes. I'm not going without, but I'm not living a life of luxury." The mayor of San Jose scoffed at $250,000. That's what a two-engineer couple might make, he said. It put them in "the upper working class" and wasn't enough to "buy a home in Silicon Valley."
The article triggered(引起) an outpouring of e-mails—many applauding that someone had finally described their harried plight(困境，苦境); others sarcastically wondering what planet the whiners lived on. But so much angst among the affluent—however defined—attests to something else: the present recession, unlike any other since World War II, has deeply shaken the nation's economic elite.
With secure jobs and ample incomes, the rich and the near rich are supposed to be insulated(绝缘) from economic slumps. Well, not this time. Many feel fearful, threatened, and impoverished. In a recent Unity Marketing survey of consumers with incomes exceeding $250,000, 60 percent said their financial situation had deteriorated; 39 percent said bonuses or commissions had been cut; 29 percent said their regular income had been reduced; 8 percent said they'd lost their jobs; and 4 percent said their hours had been reduced. Even with a partial stock-market rebound(弹回), many of America's most affluent feel vulnerable to layoffs and lost income, just like other Americans. "This has been an equal-opportunity recession," argues Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing.