CNBC Brutally Mocked Over Article Comically Describing Struggles of Those Earning $400K a Year

Tommy ChristopherMar 20th, 2021, 3:32 pm
 

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Social media users relentlessly mocked a CNBC article that argued families earning $400,000 a year — the income level at which President Joe Biden says he’d begin any tax increases — “aren’t exactly living large.”

A passage from the article — written by “wealth reporter” Robert Frank and entitled “Biden defines $400,000 a year as ‘wealthy’: Here’s what that buys in a big city” — was posted to Twitter this week, and quickly went viral.

That passage indicates that the article isn’t new, but was written during the 2020 presidential campaign:

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says his tax hikes would only affect the wealthy — defining that as those who make more than $400,000 a year.

But according to a financial planning analysis, families making $400,000 a year aren’t exactly living large — especially in major cities. A family of four with $400,000 a year in income is more likely to drive a Toyota and take staycations than drive a Lambo and fly first class.

But the article has a current peg by virtue of President Biden’s remarks earlier this week in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, in which he said “anybody making more than $400,000 a year will see a small to significant tax increase,” and anyone making less would pay no additional federal tax.

The mockery was consistent and brutal, as blue-checks picked apart that passage, and others — just like it was when the article was first published.

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