> No, they don't.
Yes, they do. Because it is defined in relative terms -- as the top 10% by (net) income.
EDIT: Why do I get downvoted for a non-emotional, purely factual comment that provides additional information?
Yes, they do. Because it is defined in relative terms -- as the top 10% by (net) income.
EDIT: Why do I get downvoted for a non-emotional, purely factual comment that provides additional information?
A ridiculously stupid definition only some economists can come up with.
A family with a huge mansion and its own multi-billion trust (living expenses paid by the trust) is not upper class, a graduate who owns nothing but debt and has just landed a well-paid job is, according to this definition.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesausbildungsförderungsges...
A trust (Stiftung) owns itself. Its capital gains are not the beneficiaries' capital gains. It may also own the mansion in my example, so good luck taking imputed rents into account.
> Furthermore, university in Germany is basically free and there is government support for poor students (BAföG) [1], so graduate debt is not that much of an issue.
This doesn't change the point that someone who just started a well-paying job and owns nothing but debt is considered "upper class" by this so-called study.
I wish this discussion could move on from this unfortunate, but minor semantic point to the substance, namely that 5160 EUR/month of net income for a couple take you into the top decile in Germany.
It may be a minor semantic point to you, but it's half of what makes the headline a low-effort clickbait as typical for the "Zeit" since it goes against all common sense and why people take offense. The other half is the obvious flaw in the study, also typical for low-quality research that results in such left-populist articles, of asking people sensitive questions about their income (and perhaps wealth) and expecting valid responses.
I wish we would move on to debating why this kind of trashy content gets so much attention and why certain people just crave for it to be published.