Sunday I learned that I am insensitive after I wrote a column arguing that families who earn as much as $200,000 to $250,000 are "rich."

A San Francisco couple earning $205,000 informed me they "shouldn't be considered anything but working middle class." A $215,000 couple told me, "Families making $200,000 a year are not rich. They're not even close to rich." A San Francisco lawyer explained that a $200,000 salary cannot make one rich because, "A 'rich' person does not need to work." Like Bruce Wayne.

I live in the Bay Area. I know how expensive it is. I also think a country that has supersized everything from popcorn to sport utility vehicles can add a new jumbo-scale item to the list -- supersized rich. Being simply rich is not enough.

Rich no longer means that you earn more than 93 percent of the people in your town -- yes, even in Ess Eff, about 93 percent of households get by on less than $200,000 a year. Nor does it mean you earn more than 97 percent of the rest of the country. Rich now means Bill Gates. Really.

Last year, the California Budget Project calculated the earnings which a two-worker family with two children must earn in the Bay Area to be middle class -- that is, to make enough money to provide a safe home and "make ends meet without help from public programs." The magic number: $77,076 -- less if the family does not have to buy its own health care or pay for child care.

So I called CBP's Jean Ross to ask her if she thinks $200,000-plus makes a Bay Area family rich. "I would certainly describe that as the nation's highest income earners," Ross answered.

But would she call it rich? She demurred. Until finally I asked, is there anyone you would call rich? "Bill Gates, certainly." You would think that "rich" is a slur -- Goddess forbid people think you earn a lot of money. Sure, they're earning more than 97 percent of Americans, but they cannot be rich because they own older cars, or they don't travel abroad, or they only are saving for their kids' college and retirement.

They see only what other people have and they do not have. They do not see what they have, but others do not. They apparently do not notice the people with whom they work every day who live on less. They are not chastened by sfgate.com commenters who were appalled that anyone would complain that he could not buy a home or put aside any savings on a measly $200,000-plus a year. Continued...