Posted on 01/31/2015 9:42:01 AM PST by C19fan
I first encountered the upper middle class when I attended a big magnet high school in Manhattan that attracted a decent number of brainy, better-off kids whose parents preferred not to pay private-school tuition. Growing up in an immigrant household, I’d felt largely immune to class distinctions. Before high school, some of the kids I knew were somewhat worse off, and others were somewhat better off than most, but we generally all fell into the same lower-middle- or middle-middle-class milieu. So high school was a revelation. Status distinctions that had been entirely obscure to me came into focus. Everything about you—the clothes you wore, the music you listened to, the way you pronounced things—turned out to be a clear marker of where you were from and whether you were worth knowing.
By the time I made it to a selective college, I found myself entirely surrounded by this upper-middle-class tribe. My fellow students and my professors were overwhelmingly drawn from comfortably affluent families hailing from an almost laughably small number of comfortably affluent neighborhoods, mostly in and around big coastal cities. Though virtually all of these polite, well-groomed people were politically liberal, I sensed that their gut political instincts were all about protecting what they had and scratching out the eyeballs of anyone who dared to suggest taking it away from them. I can’t say I liked these people as a group. Yet without really reflecting on it, I felt that it was inevitable that I would live among them, and that’s pretty much exactly what’s happened.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Hard to learn much from a stupid person and next to impossible to earn a living from a poor “free stuff” person.
So they guy didn’t pronounce his words right - at least he benefited by upward mobility afforded him by being amongst achievers but hasn’t the grace to appreciate it. What a whiner - but he’s paid to come up with something negative so he does.
Where is that guy with the face palm saying “not this $hit again” ?
I grew up in Manhattan, from the wonderful late sixties right through the worst of the 70s-80s. But I tell you, rich and poor lived in the same neighborhood. I went to school with some extremely wealthy people and some extremely poor people. Poor white people too, fwiw.
I never realized we had a class system in America until I saw the movie “Caddyshack”. It was a complete revelation to me.
Some things have gotten much, much better in this country over the ensuing decades, but our system of class striation has gotten much, much worse.
You nailed it.
I went to Prep School in a wealthy neighborhood, Shaker Heights, Oh. I lived in the dorm, and the locals made sure we dorm rats knew about class distinctions.
I don’t think they’ll go that low but I do think a bubble is about to burst. Houston says they’re not totally dependent upon the energy business but that’s not completely true. And the energy companies are laying off left and right.
In 2007 there was a bust and builders were going under every day. Within two years it was going crazy again and new builders were popping up all over the place and the builders that survived were, and still are, growing.
The boom around her is crazy. You can go to a part of Houston you haven’t been to in six months and you won’t recognize the place. There are new roads being built, existing roads being widened, overpasses, new subdivisions everywhere. Houses being sold as quick as they can be built. But not many in the “affordable” range of less than $200,000.
There used to be a “rule” that the land could only cost a certain percentage of the house and land cost combined. Now it doesn’t matter. I know of houses that cost $500,000 being built on land that cost $500,000. A million dollar deal and half of the cost is the land. And they appraise.
And land prices around here are out of sight. We looked for several years and finally gave up. I live in a 1700 sq. ft. house. I can’t buy land and build a 1300 sq. ft. house without it costing more than what I’m living in.
I am of the opinion that there are two tax rate discussions that need to happen in this nation. They can be summarized by two questions:
What is the minimum tax percentage that everyone, regardless of income or deductions should pay?
and
What is the maximum tax percentage that anyone should have to pay?
Granted there are many other tax discussions that should take place, but these two questions should be addressed by the alternative minimum tax (already exists but needs modification) and the alternative maximum tax (does not exist.
I propose that the minimum should be at least 5% and the maximum should be no more than 25%
I think part of it is inflation that they deny exists. It takes a lot of dollars to buy anything. Pay the people enough “dollars” and they’ll spend it on whatever they want. Pay someone enough to buy a million dollar house and they’ll buy it.
I knew a guy who lived through the Houston boom in the 70s. He said “It cost a lot of money back then. But everybody had a lot of money.”
Anyone who pays $500,000 for a home in the Houston area is a damn fool. Texas is a big state, and Houston has very loose zoning restrictions — so the cost of buying land and building a new house is very low compared to any other major metropolitan area. That’s a recipe for disaster if you pay a fortune for a home.
Housing USED to be comparably low in Houston. Not anymore. As for zoning, they have HOAs that protect from a pig farm being next door. Plus, if a piece of land is developed for single family housing the land next door is much more valuable for houses than it is for pig farming.
You have to go farther and farther away from Houston to see a pasture full of cows or a soybean field.
left vs left
That’s my point. It’s not like you’re in a coastal city or in an area surrounded by mountains where space is limited. Why would anyone pay a premium for land in a place where space is not constrained?
The takers spend Zer0 hours/wk "giving back".
Because they don’t want to drive 2 hours to work one way. And, because that’s the asking price. So, if you want to live near the city, you’re going to pay.
There’s still cheap land in Texas. Way out in west Texas in the middle of nowhere. But people like city water and sewage treatment. Out in the country you have to drill a well and install a septic system. That can add up to $20,000 to the cost.
The lesson for Houston from places like Atlanta is that, eventually, the jobs, water lines, and sewer systems migrate to the exurbs where many people want to live. Maybe that will eventually happen in Houston.
I used to watch the t.v. show, House Hunters" back in the day before every other couple they featured was queer. I wondered the same thing, "where are they getting the money"? Fairly young couples who don't even flinch at million dollar price tags or even multi millions.
I’m in New Jersey and I make low 6 figures as a business owner. I grew up dirt poor in New York city in a terrible neighborhood. I guess I would be considered upper middle class but with my background, I don’t feel like it. Societal class distinctions are fascinating to me, probably because it seems like I straddle two different worlds. This is a great topic. Thanks for your insight.
Could you please express those prices in terms of troy ounces of gold? The value of the dollar is just too volatile and unstable for me to use as a frame of reference.
Middle class. Upper middle class. Lower middle class. Those are really vague distinctions. But what has destroyed America is liberalism. And liberals come from all socio-economic levels.I read somewhere a lot of politics today is a war between the Upper Middle Class envious of the Upper Class; war between the 5% vs. the 1%. - C19fan
My own rough formulation is that if you look at the red/blue map on a fine basis, what you see is the inner cities and the toney inner suburbs are blue, and the rest of the country is red. What I see is the well-off wanting to patronize the middle class (and the poor), and the poor (which belongs in scare quotes because in America the “poor” people tend to be fat) being willing to be patronized - and both against the middle class. Always remembering that “red” or “blue” areas are so designated by a majority or perhaps even a plurality of the vote. The trouble we have is that the Republican Party isn’t entirely comfortable being the party of the middle class, and won’t always defend us.
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