You don't understand how incomes and the census data even works. When you set aside 401k and IRA money it doesn't show up as income. It actually lowers your taxable income for that year so instead of seeing 180k earned you might instead have 150k earned. It's what the IRS calls "tax deferred" which means the money is sitting in an account you own and contributes to your net worth but it's pre-income-tax money. That means someone who has 3 million in an IRA will only show "income" on money they take out of the tax deferred account which may only be 50k in a fiscal year. Income basically tells you nothing and it's a dumb statistic to cite.

Someone doesn't understand it, but it's not me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...

"A household's income can be calculated in various ways but the US Census as of 2009 measured it in the following manner: the income of every resident of that house that is over the age of 15, including pre-tax wages and salaries, along with any pre-tax personal business, investment, or other recurring sources of income, as well as any kind of governmental entitlement such as unemployment insurance, social security, disability payments or child support payments received."

> That means someone who has 3 million in an IRA will only show "income" on money they take out of the tax deferred account which may only be 50k in a fiscal year.

We're talking about putting in, not taking out.