It's sad how many people here are claiming people with high income are "pretending" they are middle class because they live beneath their means are are frugal. Spending less than you earn should be celebrated here, and they shouldn't be criticized for their mental model of the world.
Literally nobody is saying that
Yes, people are saying that - you specifically called them "pretenders".
Here are a bunch of quotes from the two threads:
"
I find it hard to sympathize with these middle class
pretenders, as I grew up in a family of doctors, am a lawyer, my wife is a doctor, and we live in the SF bay area. We hang out with other lawyers and tech professionals. If I can keep perspective on where this falls in the grand scheme of wealth, I think others should be able to as well."
"If your household income is 200K a year, you make more than 95% of Americans.
I don't care what your perceptions are based on who you hang out with. You have a skewed view of economic reality and your place among those you cross paths with every day, even if you live in a HCOL bubble. "
"B-b-b-but my perceptions make me think it's normal so it's normal right? ;)"
And on the other thread you were part of this exchange:
"So when someone who makes $200k or $500k a year acts as if they're a regular guy they may not be delusional but just have a different perspective on what income and wealth really means"
"Yeah, a delusional perspective"
This is all this is saying people who consider themselves middle class because they spend middle class are wrong and are deluding themselves. That's what I wrote before.
Compared to most of human history, and most of the world right now - all of us are rich - extremely rich. Pointing fingers at others and saying how they're rich with no perspective of real life is pretty sad considering the amount of luxury all of us have compared to most people throughout history.