One thing I actually don't understand is how our discourse often shifts seamlessly between "wow it's so hard to live on $400,000 per year" and "ungrateful moochers on disability, living the good life on $800 bucks a month" or "$15/hour is an ABSURDLY high hourly wage!" I'd think the semi-richie riches (I don't mean the billionaires, just the upper upper upper middle class types) should have some logic circuit in their brain which spits out a readout saying, "If I can't live on $400,000 per year, it must be hard to live on $30,000!" but they never seem to get to that point.