I have shared my thoughts on your perception in the other forum "How Much Do You Earn Per Annum?"

Basically, people's perception tend to be constrained by their own circumstances and the environment and social circles they mixed with. According to one research article, people of the same income class tended to live in the same neighborhood. That is, the wealthy will congregate in wealthy estates, the middle class will live in middle class neighborhoods, and the lower income class will be clustered in lower income neighborhoods. In free economies, this is a logical and natural outcome since people will buy a home within their affordability. The interesting findings from the research are:

1. Everyone regardless of their income class tended to think they are in the middle class. This was because people regardless of whey they stay, tended to only compare with their neighbors in their neighborhood. And seeing that they have about the same stuff as their neighbors, they concluded that they must be average.

2. Because they think they are in the middle income class, they wrongly perceived the wealth gap between the rich and the poor. The wealthy tended to overestimate the income of the poor, while the lower income tended to underestimate the income of the wealthy. For eg, the guy earning $3k per month may think that the rich guy was only earning $10k per month when in actual fact, the rich guy is taking home $20k or more per month. Likewise the rich guy (with $20k per month income) may think that the lower income guy is earning about $7-8k per month.

3. As people perceived themselves to be middle income class, they tended not to accept that there could be large income/wealth gap. They would not believe in the first instance, if they see claims of income much higher than their own.

Although we lived in an internet connected world, where information are readily available, this kind of perception still persist. This is mainly because salaries are still not publicized and employees are bound not to disclose their remuneration. Very erroneous perception can also occur within the same company. For eg, a low level staff earning $2k per month may think that the directors of the company are earning $10k - $15k per month when in fact, they could be earning $50k per month!

I have friends who are power couples. Both husbands and wives are "rising stars" in their companies and they are only in their late 30s. Their combined incomes are around $400k pa or more. Another phenomenon I observed is that successful people tended to seek out other successful people. So, successful men tend to seek out / attract successful women. What you get are the power couples. By their 40s, these couples could be earning anything from $500k and above.

You don't have to believe anything posted/boasted by the posters, but to disregard high incomes earned by some people would be akin to burying your head in the sand.