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This might be a very non American problem, but people forget that there are social pressures to follow when you are middle class that cost more money.
by woweoe 4y ago
This might be a very non American problem, but people forget that there are social pressures to follow when you are middle class that cost more money.
- ___rubidium___ 4y agoIt's also an American problem. I notice it most in the pressure to have a nice front lawn. In some American neighborhoods, if you don't regularly cut your grass, people will call the police.
- a_nop 4y agoParticipating in class signaling is optional, starting with the choice of where to live. I can tell you from experience that if you find the right neighborhood, you can have good access and security and not have to cut your grass regularly. It's a big country.
- legitster 4y ago> In some American neighborhoods, if you don't regularly cut your grass, people will call the police. If you can afford to live in one of these neighborhoods, you are already middle class.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Kye 4y agoIt really depends. In some, neighbors will assume you're going through a rough spot and cut it for you. It probably depends on how many generations removed your neighbors are from abject poverty. Too many and they lose touch with how easy it is to end up on one side or another of the line.
- dahdum 4y agoThey'll call code enforcement in a city, or the HOA if you have one. You can choose to live in less strict neighborhoods, and they're usually cheaper.
- legitster 4y agoIn America, it can be all over the place. On one hand, the first time I had a corporate job I certainly felt very naked being the one guy with a ratty car in the parking lot. On the other hand, you might have a CEO proudly drinks cheap beer and wears Kirkland Signature workboots to the office.
- nopenopenopeno 4y agoYou definitely won’t have a CEO who proudly drives a ratty car. Sorry but it doesn’t go both ways.
- vanadium 4y agoLet’s de-escalate it to relative car value to income then, in which case I’d say Warren Buffett is a good candidate. While you might not consider it ratty, it’s still pretty grounded and emblematic of frugality, all things considered.
- legitster 4y ago> While you might not consider it ratty At one point, he did have a car he got on discount because of hail damage. That's pretty ratty in my opinion.
- zozbot234 4y ago> You definitely won’t have a CEO who proudly drives a ratty car. Seriously? It happens all the time. Lots of very wealthy people get into the habit of penny-pinching to the extreme and "hiding" their wealth from everyone else.
- hackerfromthefu 4y agoI had a CEO who drove an old toyota corolla. Also played music gigs for fun. His company was long term, and eventually IPOd. Not flash in the pan startup VC stuff but SAAS erp for essential industry.
- ncmncm 4y agoThere is no middle class anymore. What you mention are lower class pressures. Middle-class pressures, back when there was one, meant you were expected to get a new car every year. There were reasons for that, back then: tetraethyl lead additives in the gasoline destroyed engines in no time. But it was not a big drain on middle-class people, just an expense to keep up with. "They" have been very, very good at convincing lower-class people they are now middle class. It worked! Fully half the voting population imagines, when they think they are voting to keep their own money away out of the poors' hands, really are voting to keep extreme rich peoples' money in the rich peoples' hands, along with most of what could have been the voters' money, besides. They have got so good at it, people actually elected an out-and-out confidence grifter to the Presidency, and helped stage a coup attempt to keep him there.
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoMy parents were middle class, maybe upper middle class. They felt exactly zero pressure to get a new car every year. Yes, this was still in the days of leaded gasoline. I think, rather than "they" convincing people, that you have made up a definition of "middle class" that exists only in your own mind. It doesn't correspond to either the real world or to the definition that the rest of us are using.
- ProjectArcturis 4y agoI don't know why you're claiming middle class people used to get a new car every year. It used to be that a man with a high-school education could provide fairly well for his family as the sole breadwinner. But a new car every year is fantasy.
- refurb 4y agoI know plenty of people who live off one income, not always but usually the father. They’re usually people working trades in the mid-west, but they own a nice house, have cars, and savings in the bank. It’s still possible. But it seems like few people are interested in those careers or living in those locations any more. Usually because neither is prestigious enough. If everyone wants an office job that pays enough to live in a trendy HCOL coastal city - yeah, a single income with high school only won’t cut it.