re: #47 GunstarGreen

There was an article written a few years back, unfortunately I forget the title or the paper it was in… but basically it was detailing the lives of wealthy people who ‘suffer’ greatly from “keeping up with the Joneses” culture. Obscene amounts of money compared to the rest of us, but living ‘paycheck to paycheck’ more or less because of all of the shiny new shit their elite social circles demand they keep buying to keep up the expected appearance of being wealthy.

I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for those types.

But there are places in this country where just living a ‘normal’ life costs a stupid amount of money. Even here in Georgiastan there are pronounced tiers of social strata. Consider what I’m paying right now for mortgage + insurance in one part of the metro Atlanta area; a year back I was paying 150% of that for rent alone on a studio apartment only about 20 miles away. Both outside of the city proper, neither extravagant by any means, but it was WAY more expensive to just exist in modest accommodations depending on what plot of ground I settled on.

Fortunately, I have a relatively unique situation; raised by a more-or-less blue collar family, lower-middle-class at best, but I happened to be a massive nerd and pretty smart so I squeaked out a good degree in tech and landed a nice IT job. Solidly middle- to upper-middle-class wages, much simpler lifestyle. Gives me a leg up on the financial front.

WALL STREET BANKERS SUFFER WHEN THEIR BONUSES ARE CUT.

Paid a lower bonus, he said the $350,000 he earns, enough to put him in the country’s top 1 percent by income, doesn’t cover his family’s private-school tuition, a Kent, Connecticut, summer rental and the upgrade they would like from their 1,200-square- foot Brooklyn duplex.