Am I alone here?
Not to belabor the point, but this came up in my Hungarian class today. Somebody referred to a family making $250,000 as middle class. I objected that $250k = very rich. One other person in my class thought that would make you upper middle class, and one other person agreed with me and said you could buy anything you wanted with $250k. (Well, I
( Read more... )
I too am a grad student, for a while my wife and I were barely scraping by on an income designed for single students who split an apartment, not a couple with one unemployed spouse. My first year, while still adjusting to the penury, we hosted a visiting linguist from Hungary. He was a post-doc, and was fairly well off in Hungarian terms. But the whole trip we could see his despair at our own relative wealth... he lived in a studio apt. with his girlfriend also on a stipend, and could barely afford clothing. After that, I was not so upset about not being able to enjoy all my town's restaurants and bars.
The second was when I went to Brazil for a conference. Several of us Americans and Canadians went to a soccer match, and our hosts suggested we buy the fancy neutral seats, where the risk of violence was low. These were the best seats in the house, and cost $25 each. That's a bargain compared to even mediocre seats at major pro sporting events in the US. But for our hosts it was a huge expense for a game. Unfortunately, one of the Canadians blurted out how cheap the tickets were, and awkwardness ensued.
There are two points I'd like to make with these stories. Well three. First is that people feel rich when they feel richer than their neighbors and peers, even if they're not very rich. Perceived wealth is all relative. Second is that on a global scale, even poorer Americans are filthy rich. But Nigerian goat herders aren't on our radar, so we don't feel rich compared to them. Third is that even when there are Americans around, sometimes it's the Canadian who's rude.
So on the one hand, even though I make way under $250,000 a year, I feel rich because I don't worry about things like famine or malaria or my children dying from common colds.
On the other hand, I feel not rich at all because I don't own a home, or drive a new car, or have the newest laptop, or watch 500 channels in Hi-Def on a flat-screen mounted on the wall. I barely make enough to pay taxes at all, much less worry about if they'll go up.
Reply
Incidentally, I also understand that it's easier for me since I'm not supporting a child on my salary!
One of my fellow students is from China, and for the first two years here, her husband was unemployed (and not allowed to find work for visa reasons), so her TA salary had to support her, her husband, and their young son (he's 8 or 9 now). Her husband is now finishing up a master's degree, which hasn't actually increased their income (he only got enough support for a tuition waiver, and he doesn't even have that for his last semester), but, in her words, "At least he has something to do besides sit at home and complain."
Anyway, things are worse for her than for me.
Reply
Leave a comment