The “Middle Class” Wealthy

The following is from Keith Whitaker, Just Don't Call Them Rich, WSJ.com, March 5, 2008:

The key to riches in America, according to Alan Prince and Lewis Schiff, is not thinking like a millionaire but thinking like...a member of the middle class.***

Even Bill Gates, in a recent interview, couldn't bring himself to use the R-word to describe his own sumptuous condition. Part of the hesitation may be simple prudence: Wealth-holders know that assets can be fugitive. The subprime crisis has only reinforced this painful truth.***

Prince and Schiff focus on the more than five million American households with a net worth of $1 million to $10 million. True to form, the members of such "MCM" households, according to the authors' extensive survey, don't think of themselves as rich. They feel themselves to be "middle class."***

To help draw their class portrait, Messrs. Prince and Schiff offer a few high-profile MCM examples, like Bruce Spector, the backer of PinnacleCare, and Edward Goldman, the founder of MDVIP, both "concierge" medical-care providers.***

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.