Things rich people dont know

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rich people don't know that sometimes being poor is not about money management. My in-laws are very guilty of this. I grew up poor. They are still convinced that growing up poor = your parents were morons who didn't know how to manage money.

Rich people don't know the prices of everyday items such as grocery items, clothing from most department stores, etc. My daughter's favorite game to play when she was younger with my MIL was "Gram, how much is a jar of pickles?" and see what crazy price she'd say. My MIL was serious and not at all humoring my daughter.

Yeah, I had someone in a social work class in college say that poor people were poor because they didn't manage their investments well.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Rich people don't know that plumbers and electricians aren't embarrassed about their jobs.

I think those are just the new money people who assume plumbers are embarrassed to be plumbers.

It's not just new money who look down on plumbers. My dad was a plumber and I once had a teacher incorporate derisive statements about plumbers into a lesson. I'm not one to hold her tongue and immediately told her that making fun of others for their profession was not cool and that my dad was a plumber.

Out of curiosity, what grade were you, and what was the teacher's reaction?

7th grade. She called my mother and said I? was mouthy in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That you can get many fine meals out of a road-killed deer. Many poor rural families see winter roadkills as mana from heaven.

Well, to be fair, this is more of a divide between rural and urban lifestyles. I'm not rich by any stretch of imagination, but I've been a city dweller my entire life and I've never had deer, roadkill or otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in poverty and now have a HHI approaching $400k/year. What rich people don’t understand is that the main benefit of having money is that you don’t have to suffer many indignities simply because you have the financial resources to choose other options. So store clerks are nice, teachers don’t belittle your children, your boss is less likely to proposition you. People prey on weakness, and the poor are weak because they are so reliant on everything working out just right. My ambition has nothing to do with wanting things. It has to do with wanting to be able to tell someone, at any given time, to piss off.

Agree completely, except I use a different word than "piss." I

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am a highschool teacher and this week we had some career volunteers/ life couches come and talk to the kids. One guy made his speech about being a first generation college grad and did a list of "things poor kids dont know but need to." My kids liked it and there has been a lot of chit chat about it this week. I decided to reverse the topic and ask them what they think might be some things rich people dont know and these are some kid bits of that convo...

1.) flatbread is really just pizza. "I was so confused about that word but every time its literally just been pizza."
2.) its awkward/embarrassing when you associate having a license to having a car. "Me turning 16 means nothing, Im poor"
3.) We dont grieve not having a father. We dont know another family structure. "Thats like crying because I dont have a brother, when Ive never had a brother. No one does that."
4.) One kid thought it was odd that the people who have the most clothes usually have washer and dryers at their house so in reality they need the least clothes. "If i didnt need quarters to wash I would only need like 3 shirts"

How time-sucking being poor is. Waiting for the bus. Having to take clothes to the laundromat instead of being able to throw them into a machine downstairs while you do something else. Walking because you don't have the money. Not ever being able to afford the "right" tool, container, anything so every job takes twice as long and is never done quite right. The bureaucracy. I could go on...

To add onto my initial post. Being poor is expensive. When you have no or poor credit everything costs more. If you bounce it costs a fee. If you rent because you can't buy it's costs tons more. It is way more expensive to wash clothes at the laundromat than at home (in a non-rural environment - h/t to the rural poster that was eye opening even for me). Late fees are expensive. Money orders are more expensive than checks. Cabs because you have no car are expensive. Getting groceries because you have no car is expensive. Working instead of school is opportunity cost expensive. I could go on.

This. I have a girlfriend who married a really rich guy. She also came from a well to do family. They ended up losing everything. She would talk about how expensive it was to be poor. Everything cost more when you have bad credit. Rent is expensive. Insurance is expensive.

Now, they were able to get back on their feet because they moved to Vail, CO to work with his family. However, I think it changed her forever.

[Anonymous]

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This.

I started driving a tractor at age 6. I drove a 34' trailer on my 16th birthday. I drove a loaded trailer to florida and back by myself when I was 17.

things my rich DH didn't know: that you cut the rotten parts out of food and eat it anyway. How do to...everything. How to change a tire and plant a garden. How to can and preserve food you grew yourself. Which wild plants you can eat and which are poisonous. How to hot wire a vehicle. That you should keep jumper cables in the car and know how to use them. A thousand other things.

I would like to see a comprehensive list actually.

I know some of the things you know, but not all. And I know some different things:

How to kill and dress a chicken.
How to build a fire for warmth when you're half asleep, every morning.
Chopping wood, gardening
Yes, changing a tire, hearing when a car isn't right
Fixing stuff instead of calling tech support or replacing
Not giving up immediately.
Getting shit done in general.

A comprehensive list isn’t really possible but I know all those things. Are you rich?

However, it is 12:42 a.m, and I just finished painting some trim on my home. I started painting for my dad, who was a construction worker, at the age of 7. Before that I would be the cleanup person at his job sites when he picked me up from K and first grade.

We grew up with a coal stove and no other heat. I didn’t have electric or gas heat until I went to college. A glass of water used to freeze in my bedroom 8n winter. We slept in army surplus sleeping bags, the ones with a hole for your face only.

When I was 5 some wild dogs came, dug under the fence and slaughtered our chickens. I helped process them. And later, dozens of deer, beef and pigs. I have castrated at least 100 pigs personally, and dehorned hundreds of cattle because, while female, I am good with blood and calm in stressful times. Dehorning is a heck of a day if you haven’t done it.

I can kill an injured animal with a shovel to the neck, and have many times. I also know how to shoot larger livestock so they don’t suffer.

I need not go on and on I am sure. I went from hillbilly to Ivy League and was the rare student who went with an entire large box of canned venison so I would have some meat while there....there aren’t many of us.

Wow. If you wrote a book about your life I would read it. If Hollywood made a movie about your life I would watch it.

Never would be made in Hollywood. Too many PETA people. Have to be bollywood or Merchant Ivory

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Rich people don't know that meritocracy is a myth.

I know a lot of very smart, very hardworking young people who will never achieve as much as they deserve to, and many wealthy and entitled young people who will be given jobs just for breathing and occupying space.

This times one million!

Rich people have zero idea how easy they have it in most aspects of life.

You just described white privilege too.

Same thing I just said. If you have not been white, how do you know how hard their life is? If you are not white, how do you know that the problems you have experienced in your life are due to your skin color?

Because, you complete jagoff, I have ridden in a car while a very dark-skinned person was driving. Got pulled over and harassed in a way I never have when my pale ass was driving.

Literally everything said on this thread is about poor whites, with the references to small towns and rural areas. In other words, a white skin isn't tantamount to privilege.

Maybe another thing rich people need to learn is that poor people are white people too

I made several posts about experiences being poor. I am African American from a small industrial town in Maryland that died in the 1960s and 1970s. The rural areas near that town had many African Americans OP didn't say we had to post race and gender. Are you uncomfortable with your "white privilege" and projecting on others

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The feeling of really having to pee, but someone else is locked in the one bathroom in the house.

We have one bathroom. No big deal.

I grew up in a European city, and everyone, whether rich or poor, lives in apartments that have one bathroom. Granted, the rich apartments are bigger, nicer and located in better areas, but one bathroom per household is the norm. Actually, it's the norm in most cities of the world.

PP who had really had to pee needs to get our more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Flatbread is pizza? Really?

Give OP a break. She is a teacher

Also, a kid came up with that example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a highschool teacher and this week we had some career volunteers/ life couches come and talk to the kids. One guy made his speech about being a first generation college grad and did a list of "things poor kids dont know but need to." My kids liked it and there has been a lot of chit chat about it this week. I decided to reverse the topic and ask them what they think might be some things rich people dont know and these are some kid bits of that convo...

1.) flatbread is really just pizza. "I was so confused about that word but every time its literally just been pizza."
2.) its awkward/embarrassing when you associate having a license to having a car. "Me turning 16 means nothing, Im poor"
3.) We dont grieve not having a father. We dont know another family structure. "Thats like crying because I dont have a brother, when Ive never had a brother. No one does that."
4.) One kid thought it was odd that the people who have the most clothes usually have washer and dryers at their house so in reality they need the least clothes. "If i didnt need quarters to wash I would only need like 3 shirts"

Man! This actually should be a life philosophy.

It actually is. In Japan. I read an article in the Post a couple of months ago on the subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used my first bonus check when I finally got a really good job to fix my teeth after YEARS of neglect. I had several root canals, teeth extracted, crowns, etc. I got braces.

Also, when I first moved away to go to school at age 17, I was always embarrassed/scared to use certain words because while I knew a lot of "big" words (from books) I didn't know how to pronounce them (this was pre-internet) because nobody I knew used them.

This. Rich people don't know that poor people don't have dental. I did not go to the dentist until high school when I had several cavities and needed a root canal. My mom's boss bought her dentures and she paid him back slowly. Also, I could not pronounce certain words in college because my poor parents said them incorrectly my whole life.

You know, in my first job out of college (13 years ago), someone there (also right out of college) told us he just went to the dentist for the first time in his life. I'm just now realizing that he probably grew up poor and that was probably the first time he had dental insurance. IIRC, he didn't say I grew up poor - he just said he'd never been and I just thought maybe his parents didn't think it was necessary or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used my first bonus check when I finally got a really good job to fix my teeth after YEARS of neglect. I had several root canals, teeth extracted, crowns, etc. I got braces.

Also, when I first moved away to go to school at age 17, I was always embarrassed/scared to use certain words because while I knew a lot of "big" words (from books) I didn't know how to pronounce them (this was pre-internet) because nobody I knew used them.

This. Rich people don't know that poor people don't have dental. I did not go to the dentist until high school when I had several cavities and needed a root canal. My mom's boss bought her dentures and she paid him back slowly. Also, I could not pronounce certain words in college because my poor parents said them incorrectly my whole life.

You know, in my first job out of college (13 years ago), someone there (also right out of college) told us he just went to the dentist for the first time in his life. I'm just now realizing that he probably grew up poor and that was probably the first time he had dental insurance. IIRC, he didn't say I grew up poor - he just said he'd never been and I just thought maybe his parents didn't think it was necessary or whatever.

Could also be a sign he didn't grow up in the USA. Regular dental care is a lot less common among the middle and upper classes in other countries.

[Anonymous]

Rich people don't know what it's like to be hungry, really hungry.

[Anonymous]

How to start a fire with wet wood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rich people don't know that meritocracy is a myth.

I know a lot of very smart, very hardworking young people who will never achieve as much as they deserve to, and many wealthy and entitled young people who will be given jobs just for breathing and occupying space.

This times one million!

Rich people have zero idea how easy they have it in most aspects of life.

To be fair , this is applicable to like the majority of UMC and middle class whites who are more likelt to have been beneficiaries of such mechanisms

I'm UMC from a dirt poor background. I have benefited from theme meritocracy.

Meritocracy exists in certain fields. Particularly, those that focus on results rather than relationships. In general STEM is a meritocracy.

What nonsense. Rich people have private schools and tutors for their kids and money to pay for college. STEM is NOT a meritocracy. Most med school graduates are UMC background or above because they had the $$$ for education.