The other day Evangeline asked me about the economy

[conuly]

(Which is a nice change of pace from her usual questions about the start of the world.)

And after giving a very brief synopsis of the fact that right now there aren't many rich people but they're very very rich, and there are a heck of a lot of poor people (and trust me, the way I grew up, that was positively apolitical), she thought for a bit and then came out with "So... we're kinda in the middle between rich and poor, right?"

Yes, welcome to America, with the world's biggest middle class!

After I amused myself laughing for a few seconds I corrected her. No, although you might miss it by the fact that we have a house, and internet access, and a heck of a lot of books, we are actually poor. (Why on earth does she think we walk everywhere? In the rain or the cold or the dark, no less! I've got a twisted ankle (again), and I'm still walking everywhere because bus fare is $2.25!) I explained that although there are plenty of people in worse shape than we are, we're definitely not "in between" anything.

Which makes me roll my eyes reading this little post. Look, if you're rolling in the dough, just tell your children that! "Yes, we are actually fabulously wealthy. We're very lucky." How hard is that? (Of course, if being rich is shameful, I can think of a few things to spend all that money on. They can send it right to me, I'll take it off their hands, no questions asked!)

Comments

[steorra]

When I was probably about 9, my parents were doing their taxes, and somehow it came up that my family counted as poor. (This was probably a fairly temporary state of affairs; my dad had recently changed jobs from a higher-paying one to one where, at the beginning, he got paid less; and he was the only wage-earner in a family with four kids.)

I laughed at the idea. It was obvious to me that we were not actually poor. We had a house (okay, a townhouse with effectively two bedrooms for six people), and a car, and enough food, and things like pottery lessons and... I don't know what exactly it was that convinced me that we were not poor, but it seemed obvious to my 9-year-old self. (Though of course I don't know how careful my parents were having to be to make all those things work.)

I think my parents' response was that indeed, by worldwide standards, we weren't really poor. But that was a long time ago, and I don't remember clearly.

EDIT:
To clarify, I'm not trying to say that your family's situation is the same as my family's was. Your story about Evangeline reminded me about the story about when I was younger, and they have some elements in common (family counts as poor according to some standard, child doesn't perceive it that way), but it also seems clear that my family was better off materially than yours is: we had a car and didn't skimp on using it, and that's quite different from not only using bus rather than car, but walking to avoid bus. So there might even be a reasonable definition in which my family was not poor but yours is.

[conuly]

In fairness, most people in NYC use the MTA rather than a car. Cars are a big expensive hassle, and the trains are faster.

Staten Island, it's harder to get around... but we mostly go into the city when we want to do things anyway, so that's not too big a deal. And I do *like* to walk, but yes, there's a lot of being careful. (I nab my mom or sister's unlimited every weekend to go shopping, though.)

With you on the eyerolling.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Seven figures equals over a million a year. In what world, exactly, is that NOT "rich"?

And, honey, you're probably not really poor either...at least, in many parts of the country you wouldn't be. (I seem to recall prices being inflated in your locale, cf. local rents--around here you can rent a two-bedroom house for 600-1,000 a month.)

I understand in some areas it's even worse (as when the ex and I tried to move to MS).

People often don't get that class and income are regional, but to reiterate, even in the highest-COL areas, a million-plus income is a LOT.

Re: With you on the eyerolling.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

I have a 3 bedroom 3-story house for 475! ;)

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think the classes need to be, well, reclassed. Because "A (owned!) house, internet, clothing, good - often homecook and very healthy- food, utilities, etc" don't denote poor in any way anymore. "No expendable income/living paycheck-to-paycheck" does not mean poor anymore. Not wealthy, by any means, but certainly not "poor" in the way it was meant to be used.

The old classing system simply doesn't work anymore.