President Obama has been putting all those who make more than $250,000 in US as "wealthiest Americans". There is a major flaw in his math leading to this upper limit. I agree with Warren Buffet, that this upper limit needs to take into account the cost of living index.
I do not agree with President and I agree with Warren Buffet that a cutoff limit of $250,000 is not fair for those living in places with high cost of living. The study (if any) that lead to choosing $250,000 as the upper limit needs to take normalization based on cost of living index into account.
In bayarea, CA, both husband and wife with masters or Ph.D can each make $100,000 and with little bit of stock trading, they will hit this limit. But, in NO way you can put them into same boat as the "wealthiest Americans". Wealthiest Americans are those who attended President's dinners during campaign in Atherton, Menlo Park, CA. The folks he is labeling as "wealthiest American" would also include a two income family, trying to buy a 3 bedroom house, that costs over a million here, with 1.2% property tax, sending kids to a decent school in a state whose public school are ranked 47th in the country, trying to pay their student loan and all the regular expenses. They are middle class folks here in bay area. President talked about doing math and arithmatic, if you add up expenses, loan payments together, they don't add up to make families hitting the limit of $250,000 as wealthiest American family, here in the bay area.
This limit needs to be arrived at by using arithmatic and logic; not just by picking a number on a whim. Thanks for taking time to read.