The SPUSA doesn’t really want any wealthy members, does it?
While I was growing up, my father was a member of the Socialist Party of the USA, so, naturally, when I got to be middle aged and went conservative, I decided that it was time for me to be traditional and join the same party.
Unfortunately, it looks like the SPUSA has been taken over by people who really don't trust the petty bourgeoisie, and they've, um, adjusted their membership rates accordingly; they've got a sliding membership rate which adjusts according to your income, starting at $25 for people making under $20k/year, and going up to, ahem, $250 (+ 1% of income over $50k) for people making over $50k/year. So, I make something on the ballpark of $115,000 a year right now, so they're talking about me paying, um, $900 a year just to be a member of the party. That's, um, pretty substantial for an organization that's got maybe 3000 members in it, and I can't help but think that the only reason they'd run the rates up this high is that the leadership of the SPUSA really doesn't want to have any members of the professional classes to be a part of the party.
That's approximately 4 times what the Wobblies would charge me for an IWW membership, and membership in a union actually provides concrete benefits, not just pie in the sky when you die (the socialist revolution in the United States is going to come, thanks to the twin goads of Evil Party fundamentalism and "free market" attacks on the American worker, but when it comes I'm afraid that the SPUSA will be left behind because of the pitiful membership and this whole business of driving away the petty bourgeoisie, and even if they aren't left behind the revolution is still not going to come until things get so bad that even the brainwashed proletariat in the red states can't be distracted by "Look, over there! Gay marriage!" anymore.) So, I'd like to be an officially paid up member of the SPUSA, and I'd like to have my Party membership with me so I can provide identification to the thugs of the fascist state, but when the membership fees are so high that they trigger my ripoffometer, this may be a dream that is not fulfilled during this lifetime.