this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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I saw it, and it said that a household of eight living on an income of $200k would be "low income".
First, "low income" is not poor, either legally or in the informal definition of the word. Even according to the chart you're referencing, $200k is far above the poverty line. It's more than twice the cutoff for "extremely low income".
Second, this is also based on an absurd qualifier: It's only "low" if you're trying to support seven dependents.
By this logic, $300k a year is poor too (if you're supporting a household of 12), and a million a year is also poor (if you're supporting a household of 40 in San Francisco).
This is silly. If your monthly income is $16k you aren't poor.
You can still be broke. You can be in debt. But no: you are not poor.
OP didn't really ask for your definition of the word. OP asked broadly and in quotes. And, yes with a large enough amount of mouths to feed and house, 300k could not be enough to support that and you could be poor. Granted, its unlikely.
All of that aside, I think you're just biased because you don't live in an area like SF. To you 200k seems like a lot of money, so you can't fathom being poor with that income. Poverty line in parts of the bay area is $150k.
What you don't seem to understand is the cost of housing. A 3 bedroom apartment or house (normal boring house) will cost between $5000-$20000/month. That is barely affordable on $200,000 after taxes.
You're welcome to your opinion, but what's funny is that I live in Oakland in a household of three on a joint income of $160k. We live in a two bedroom apartment near Lake Merritt that costs $2500 per month. And we're pretty comfortable.
It sounds like you and I are neighbors. If you're having a harder time than I am I don't want to invalidate your experience. But not everyone who feels financially constrained is poor, imo.
Oakland is not SF. Oakland is where people move to save money because they're too poor for SF, lmao. $2500 for a 2BR is cheap.