The Clueless Rich

I rarely go onto "banter" or "OT" sections of forums, because the assholes feel even more free to be there than on-topic locations. But I foolishly clicked such a thread, and saw someone insist this regarding estate taxes (which do kick in or are proposed to kick in, I'm not sure which, at $2 million):

"In saying that $2 million in wealth doesn't make you wealthy, I was thinking of a retired person with a good home and a nest egg that they lived off of, since that is usually who is passing on an estate. If $500,000 is the home value, then $1.5 million is used to generate your income for retirement, the person could probably get about 10% per year to live off of which would be $150,000."

1) Half a million dollar home? In some American markets that's downright ostentatious, in others it would be reasonable for a family home, but in all cases I know of, that would be an overly large house for a retired couple.
2) $150,000/year nicely qualifies someone as the top-most 10% of the economy, maybe the top 5% (top 2% starts at $200K) -- in other words, RICH. Even more so with an elderly person, as the rest of us are expected to cut our spending in half once we leave the work force. (At least according to the few remaining pension plans out there.)
3) That's $150,000/year without touching the principle! Most responsible retirement planning for people who aren't rich involves carefully managing depletion of principle, so that a person does not end up broke and perhaps leaves behind a moderate inheritance, but enjoys most of the spoils of what they earned in their youth. The only people who can bring in $150K a year without touching principle are, again, RICH.
4) This is all beside the point anyway, because the estate tax is charged on the heirs, not the cute old grandparently couple the speaker is trying (and failing) to make us sympathize with.

Yes, $2 million in wealth DOES make you wealthy, ya selfish dumbass.