I have seen this debate pop up a lot on the internet for a long time. People claim that the Huxtables are the average middle class family. But there have been some push back with people claiming that the Cosby's were never "middle class". And saying that they are/were is a flat out lie.
What's your take??
He was a doctor and she was a lawyer. They lived in a condo in New York and were able to put their four eldest kids through college (and likely did so for their youngest). Also, people kept free loading off them. They were quite wealthy. I remember one episode where Denise was even made fun of at school for being a rich kid.
shareThey were a textbook example of upper middle class. Doctor and lawyer are the two most stereotypical upper middle class professions in existence. Relatively few doctors or lawyers are actually "rich"; "well-off" is a better term for most of them. They weren't millionaires, and even someone worth a few million dollars is poor compared to a billionaire, so they weren't even close to the top of the economic classes. Bill Cosby himself was certainly rich; he had an estimated net worth of $400 million at one time.
shareThis is the correct answer, they were absolutely upper middle class.
Not upper class, even though they were well off. But they weren't THAT well off, they'd be part of the "10%", not the "1%", and every cent they had was due to hard work and education. The upper class has inherited wealth or familial social connections that ease their way in life, Cliff and Claire didn't have any of that when they were young and ambitious.
I agree that the Hubbles are in the top 10% of income rather than top 1%. Not sure where it would be appropriate to draw the line between upper-middle and lower-upper class, though. Of course, income and wealth are different things. Many high-income people fail to amass wealth over their lifetimes while some middle-income people do.
I disagree that most of the wealthy in the U,S. inherited their wealth. If you look at the wealthiest people in the U.S. they are mostly first generation wealthy - entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Elon Musk, investors like Warren Buffet and CEOs and elite professionals.
I’d say top 5% based on family income but, given that they lived in a city with a very high cost of living, their lifestyle was closer to upper-middle class. However, for a Black family of the era, they were 1 percenters.
shareClair was a CORPORATE lawyer. And according to the show a SUCCESSFUL corporate lawyer. She alone puts them in the lower bracket of millionaires... at least. They're definitely at least a step above "upper middle class".
shareSome corporate attorneys can make very large incomes. For instance, corporate lawyers working for wealthy clients can earn very large salaries—ranging from $500,000 to as much as $40 million per year (for the record she was partner at her law firm). At the very least, Claire was making more money than Cliff, and Cliff himself a OB/YGN, likely had the average salary of $222,400–315,277.
Nope that's nowhere near middle class anything. They barely qualify even as "upper" middle class. Even in the 80's they were likely above upper middle class. I get what the show was going for in terms of class, but the creators/writers was very loose with what's considered middle class, or even upper middle class.
Upper Class! That's defined as the top quintile (20%).
But they're in the top 10% if not 5%! It's based on family income, not wealth.
Note that Senators and CongressPeople are at about 95%, so they can't claim to be middle-anything.
These are 2012 figures: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-250k-a-middle-class-income-2012-10-17
80th $101,582
90th $143,611
95th $186,000
Anyone know full-time doctors/lawyers making less that $100K?
Where you live is relevant. Here in the Bay Area, if you are a family with a combined income of $143,611, you are barely able to afford to rent, and you'll never come close to owning a home unless you move. So while your income may put you in the "top 10%," you're far, far away from even sniffing the border of "upper class."
We have no idea what the mythical Cosby family's mythical income was, but judging from their lifestyle on the show they were portrayed as upper middle class by New York standards of the era.
Nevertheless, the Bankses from "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" seemed to be even richer.
shareThis dialogue is from season 3, episode 8 (Vanessa's Rich)
Vanessa just gets done telling her parents about a fight she got in with a couple girls at school after they taunted her about being rich...
Vanessa: "None of this would've happened if we weren't so rich."
Cliff: "Let me get something straight,ok? Your mother and I are rich...you have nothing! You can tell your friends and your enemies that, ok!"
Claire: "You're father and I are not rich."
Cliff: "We're not?"
Claire: "No honey we're not rich. Rich is when the money works for you, not when you work for the money. And we work HARD for the money."
So in closing I think the above proves nothing one way or the other as to whether they're rich, but I'm bored and wanted to join in the discussion.
I suppose from that dialogue they are wealthy but not rich. They are two people who have worked hard to get to where they are and make very good money in their careers. However, they are not multi-millionaires who can live and do as they please.
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Oh definitely above middle class, but they don't have multiple homes or a yacht so rich may be an exaggeration. They also have 5 kids whom they have to support and pay for college which also isn't cheap.
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Everybody has a different measuring stick. Pretty rich according to mine. I grew up dirt poor and I thought the Huxtables were mega-loaded.
shareThis was EVER a question? They are at worst Upper Middle Class but more than likely wealthy/rich.
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