I think a lot of the issue is that we have such a distorted idea, partially fueled by the media, of what counts as 'necessity'. We, as a society, think what we see on TV is normal, perhaps subconsciously, perhaps not. This doesn't help.
I just moved from a fairly modest part of CT (which, I grant you, is already a biased comparator since CT is one of the richest states in the country and even the 'poor' parts are better off than the 'rich' areas in other states) to the part where all the bankers live. Just walking around work or between work and the apartment, I can watch the social pressures on people with upper-middle-class-to-rich incomes at work. I can see how people fall into the traps of fake necessity and never-ending comparison. And I bet very few of these folks consider themselves 'rich.' It's an interesting sociologic study...and at the same time, a definite (but fortunately conscious) struggle to keep myself from falling into the mindset.
On your 'on a related note': That's actually something Matt and I made a decision about. Friends and coworkers keep urging us to live in one of the expensive cities/towns around here that have the expensive houses and BMWs because, technically, we might be able to afford it.. We've looked at some of the towns and while they're nice, we've decided to live a little further out, but still on the train route. The town we're primarily looking at has nice houses, but not fancy ones. There are Chevys and Hondas, not BMWs. The kids play outside in the leaves and walk to the public library (we watched these occurrences both times we visited there). Some people think we're crazy to want to live somewhere 'that has poor people' (and it makes me cringe to think of how they must be defining 'poor' as 'lower-middle-class' or 'blue collar'). I think we're sane because we'll actually be able to afford to LIVE, rather than killing ourselves financially to be in a more 'desireable' location.
Thankfully, the cool Portland neighborhoods for the most part are more on hippy, funky side of things rather than the upscale side of things. Yes there are areas where you would have those problems, but those aren't the areas we want to live. It's one of the great things I like about Portland.
Charlottesville is like that - they have numerous gated and/or golf course communities, but most of the town is more granola.
Very cool that you're moving to Portland. If we ever leave C'ville, that's where we'd look first. You should let me come and plant roses in your new yard - they wouldn't even lose all their leaves in July like mine do. . .
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I just moved from a fairly modest part of CT (which, I grant you, is already a biased comparator since CT is one of the richest states in the country and even the 'poor' parts are better off than the 'rich' areas in other states) to the part where all the bankers live. Just walking around work or between work and the apartment, I can watch the social pressures on people with upper-middle-class-to-rich incomes at work. I can see how people fall into the traps of fake necessity and never-ending comparison. And I bet very few of these folks consider themselves 'rich.' It's an interesting sociologic study...and at the same time, a definite (but fortunately conscious) struggle to keep myself from falling into the mindset.
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I think my midwestern roots are showing.
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Very cool that you're moving to Portland. If we ever leave C'ville, that's where we'd look first. You should let me come and plant roses in your new yard - they wouldn't even lose all their leaves in July like mine do. . .
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