I guess my point is that the perception of status is not actual status. Many of the factors you discuss are invisible from the outside.
I have been trying to imagine the wealthy reaction to ownership of a luxury like a beach house, and it is this: these things aren't always a good investment - is it worth it?
Another anecdote:
When my wife and I bought a snow blower ages ago, we ran into class differences in our money talk. I asked if we (she, really) could afford a more expensive model. She answered that she didn't know. I did not understand this. In my experience, you had the funding or you didn't. How do you not know? I kept asking "CAN we do this or CAN'T we?" It seemed like basic math to me.
For her the question read "should" we afford to buy the more expensive model. If push came to shove, she could move money out of investments and balance our budget. What "can" she afford? Heck, if she liquefied certain accounts, we "CAN" afford a huge damn pickup with a snowplow. CAN was never the question. I didn't get that. I never lived with the sort of cushion. We approached this simple question from a different mindset. She was thinking long-term in a way I would need to learn to consider.
Mind you, the question was still valid and worth considering. Was the higher ticket item worth pulling money out of investments. The answer was probably, but I didn't even have the language to discuss this.
We have cleared this separation of assumptions, now, and I can discuss matters on her level, but my shift in attitude/thinking marks a distinct change in my social class.
It is a difference that is hard to perceive, but more real than ownership of X, Y or Z which is much easier to perceive.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-04-03 05:27 pm (UTC)I have been trying to imagine the wealthy reaction to ownership of a luxury like a beach house, and it is this: these things aren't always a good investment - is it worth it?
Another anecdote:
When my wife and I bought a snow blower ages ago, we ran into class differences in our money talk. I asked if we (she, really) could afford a more expensive model. She answered that she didn't know. I did not understand this. In my experience, you had the funding or you didn't. How do you not know? I kept asking "CAN we do this or CAN'T we?" It seemed like basic math to me.
For her the question read "should" we afford to buy the more expensive model. If push came to shove, she could move money out of investments and balance our budget. What "can" she afford? Heck, if she liquefied certain accounts, we "CAN" afford a huge damn pickup with a snowplow. CAN was never the question. I didn't get that. I never lived with the sort of cushion. We approached this simple question from a different mindset. She was thinking long-term in a way I would need to learn to consider.
Mind you, the question was still valid and worth considering. Was the higher ticket item worth pulling money out of investments. The answer was probably, but I didn't even have the language to discuss this.
We have cleared this separation of assumptions, now, and I can discuss matters on her level, but my shift in attitude/thinking marks a distinct change in my social class.
It is a difference that is hard to perceive, but more real than ownership of X, Y or Z which is much easier to perceive.