Do most of you not realize how out of touch and privileged you are?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of us worked hard in school, spend years in college and graduate school and put in long hours at work. It isn't that hard of a formula.

Also, your anger is directed at people who are WORKING for money. Maybe you should redirect it to people who either aren't working and living off the system or those not working and living off trust funds.

You are completely disregarding all the things you had in your favor before you worked hard. So many people never have the chance to go to college AND graduate school no matter how hard they are willing to work.

I always have to laugh at how "hard" rich people think they work when there are so many scraping by doing truly hard labor and often multiple jobs.

The responses to this thread just confirm what OP is saying, all these wealthy people who truly believe that all their wealth is 100% earned and because they *deserve* it. They have convinced themselves of this and will rationalize their worthiness to their dying day. To admit it was largely based on luck, be it in life events or the family they were born in to, would require them to face the fact that they aren't special and deserving.

Some of it is people who really want to be rich are willing to do work that others would find morally repugnant. I'd really rather make less and feel I'm a good person not profiting off the backs of other people who really put in the labor or shady real estate deals or legal work that undermines the environment but pays big bucks... on and on.

Lots of rich people are just willing to do questionable things others aren't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The rest of the civilzed world: Provides basic needs in the form of public goods to that people can change jobs without worrying about losing healthcare.

America: PULL YOURSELF UP BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS

Also America: *Makes you take out a high interest loan to pay for the proverbial bootstraps*

Why are you only looking at the "civilized world" i.e the RICH part of the world? Isn't this the same idiotic thing all the people on this thread do-- compare themselves to people richer than themselves?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just going to turn into a humble bragging circle-jerk for defensive so-called “self made” users here.

Yep. Lots of people explaining why THEY are super-rich because of their own hard work and good choices, and THEY deserve their good fortune, but THEY are super down to earth or aware of their privileges, and also everyone could be successful if they just worked hard enough, because that's definitely how life works.

But that is exactly how life works in the US. Not in many other countries, but definitely in the US. My mom came here when I was 6. She had $250 in her pocket, didn’t speak a word of English, and settled in subsidized housing given to her by the immigration agency as she was a refugee. She learned English, worked cleaning restaurants and offices, on weekends I helped. The school I went to wasn’t great by any means but if I brought home anything lower than top marks, there was hell to pay because “we came to this country for a chance and you have the chance to do better”. We didn’t own a TV, I slept on a mattress in the living room, food was pasta, so much pasta and whatever else was on sale. Clothes were all donations and books were from the library. I had no presents for my birthday, but she did make cake. No vacations, no camps, no lessons (though I did play an instrument after 6th grade thanks to music classes in school). For 10 years, she drove a run down car with peeling paint that was basically held together with duct tape. She got a couple of the ladies she worked with and they started a cleaning business. That business helped pay for college for me, along with Pell grants and me working. I didn’t go to a private college and lived at home to save money on housing. I didn’t get much choice in college major because I knew I needed to earn good money, I couldn’t just get my BA in Art History and intern for a year. I did accounting because it was practical and paid well. I got my masters. I married my husband (also from an immigrant family, he’s an attorney). We lived very frugally until his loans were paid off and then once he hit 35, his income really went up. Suddenly we are making serious money but we are investing it. We do own a $1m+ house, our cars are both under 50k and we paid cash for them. We took our first vacation after we paid off his loans. We have two kids (we can’t comfortably afford three), we help our parents out and they help us out with babysitting. The American dream is possible but what I see going on isn’t that the dream is dead, it’s that folks don’t want to work for it or they make dumb decisions.

Americans are up to their eyeballs in debt. I’m not talking medical debt (that’s it’s own separate issue and I very much support universal healthcare and would pay higher taxes for it). I’ve seen guys earning 100k and blowing it on car payments, buying houses they can’t afford, and other crap they don’t need. There’s a sense of entitlement to it, like they should be able to have everything. And then I also saw how little folks value education. Immigrant kids get a beating if they don’t bring home good grades, meanwhile you have American kids skipping school or talking back to teachers and parents support the kids! So all this crying about how life isn’t fair is ridiculous. Of course it’s not fair! Nothing is fair. Every country has its own problems, but be glad your problem is just debt. Where my mom is from, if you owed someone money, they’d come to your door in the middle of the night and you’d disappear. You wanted to start a business and it made someone upset, they could hire someone to shoot up your business. You got sick and didn’t have any money, there was plenty of hospital space but no medicine at all. And you can’t change anything about your situation. In America, you can change things. Your town has no jobs? Move. You can’t afford a house? Get a different job. America isn’t perfect (I’m not trying to sweep racial inequality under the table) but it’s got opportunities. It just requires you to actually work for the opportunities, instead of insisting on them just because you were born here.

Sometimes you can change things, not always and not always as easily as you make it out.

You talk about your mom and your upbringing, but you gloss over your DH and how his "serious money" got you where you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of us worked hard in school, spend years in college and graduate school and put in long hours at work. It isn't that hard of a formula.

Also, your anger is directed at people who are WORKING for money. Maybe you should redirect it to people who either aren't working and living off the system or those not working and living off trust funds.

You are completely disregarding all the things you had in your favor before you worked hard.

You and OP are also completely disregarding all the things you have in your favor before you work hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The rest of the civilzed world: Provides basic needs in the form of public goods to that people can change jobs without worrying about losing healthcare.

America: PULL YOURSELF UP BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS

Also America: *Makes you take out a high interest loan to pay for the proverbial bootstraps*

Also rest of the "civilized" world: Extremely high taxes, lower social mobility, fewer economic and social freedoms. To include EU and China.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It doesn't disgust me, it amuses me.

Many people don't realize much of it is just luck. Even for the ones who clawed their way out of poverty. Actually, the latter may be more able to appreciate exactly how luck plays into it, and how, obviously, you also "create your luck" to some extent, through hard work.

If I’m not mistaken, most US millionaires are self-made, correct? It’s not inherited wealth. So hard work and taking risks is definitely part of the equation but so is mindset. There’s a reason that lottery winners and sports stars end up broke after a few years.

LOL no. Unless you count having your parents pay for college or help you out with a down payment or loan you some money to start your first business as "self-made." There might be a few real rags-to-riches stories, but that's the exception, because the US has very low social mobility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just going to turn into a humble bragging circle-jerk for defensive so-called “self made” users here.

Yep. Lots of people explaining why THEY are super-rich because of their own hard work and good choices, and THEY deserve their good fortune, but THEY are super down to earth or aware of their privileges, and also everyone could be successful if they just worked hard enough, because that's definitely how life works.

But that is exactly how life works in the US. Not in many other countries, but definitely in the US. My mom came here when I was 6. She had $250 in her pocket, didn’t speak a word of English, and settled in subsidized housing given to her by the immigration agency as she was a refugee. She learned English, worked cleaning restaurants and offices, on weekends I helped. The school I went to wasn’t great by any means but if I brought home anything lower than top marks, there was hell to pay because “we came to this country for a chance and you have the chance to do better”. We didn’t own a TV, I slept on a mattress in the living room, food was pasta, so much pasta and whatever else was on sale. Clothes were all donations and books were from the library. I had no presents for my birthday, but she did make cake. No vacations, no camps, no lessons (though I did play an instrument after 6th grade thanks to music classes in school). For 10 years, she drove a run down car with peeling paint that was basically held together with duct tape. She got a couple of the ladies she worked with and they started a cleaning business. That business helped pay for college for me, along with Pell grants and me working. I didn’t go to a private college and lived at home to save money on housing. I didn’t get much choice in college major because I knew I needed to earn good money, I couldn’t just get my BA in Art History and intern for a year. I did accounting because it was practical and paid well. I got my masters. I married my husband (also from an immigrant family, he’s an attorney). We lived very frugally until his loans were paid off and then once he hit 35, his income really went up. Suddenly we are making serious money but we are investing it. We do own a $1m+ house, our cars are both under 50k and we paid cash for them. We took our first vacation after we paid off his loans. We have two kids (we can’t comfortably afford three), we help our parents out and they help us out with babysitting. The American dream is possible but what I see going on isn’t that the dream is dead, it’s that folks don’t want to work for it or they make dumb decisions.

Americans are up to their eyeballs in debt. I’m not talking medical debt (that’s it’s own separate issue and I very much support universal healthcare and would pay higher taxes for it). I’ve seen guys earning 100k and blowing it on car payments, buying houses they can’t afford, and other crap they don’t need. There’s a sense of entitlement to it, like they should be able to have everything. And then I also saw how little folks value education. Immigrant kids get a beating if they don’t bring home good grades, meanwhile you have American kids skipping school or talking back to teachers and parents support the kids! So all this crying about how life isn’t fair is ridiculous. Of course it’s not fair! Nothing is fair. Every country has its own problems, but be glad your problem is just debt. Where my mom is from, if you owed someone money, they’d come to your door in the middle of the night and you’d disappear. You wanted to start a business and it made someone upset, they could hire someone to shoot up your business. You got sick and didn’t have any money, there was plenty of hospital space but no medicine at all. And you can’t change anything about your situation. In America, you can change things. Your town has no jobs? Move. You can’t afford a house? Get a different job. America isn’t perfect (I’m not trying to sweep racial inequality under the table) but it’s got opportunities. It just requires you to actually work for the opportunities, instead of insisting on them just because you were born here.

Bingo! Now why people make dumb decisions is a different question... I honestly don't know why most of them are of a certain "culture".

[Anonymous]

Yawn:: Part of being privileged is that I don't really need to care what you think about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm crying I had to sell my car to make rent today.

So now i am facing a 2.5 hour bus ride in this COVID to make it to work tomorrow and i am NOT looking forward to it.


I was doing uber eats as side income, but obviously it was not enough.

I wish I could order myself an uber eats meal but we are having spagetthi tonight. (99 cent pasta, $3 sauce I sprang for the prego).

Still mad a customer from last week snatched the food bag out of my hand when it was the restaurant that made me late to deliver, no tip. In one of those 1 million dollar houses you all are talking about. As i cout the $17 in my wallet over and over again (no credit cards, thankfully).

Thanks i feel better getting to rant.
That is all.

OP, why are you not on unemployment and why do you feel obligated to pay rent when there is an eviction moratiorium in place? Inform your landlord, go to all organizations providing relief and have them help you with rent, car payment, etc. Food delivery is not worth it! Been there, done that. Good luck!

Do you understand that when the rent moratoriums expire, ALL the rent that was put into forbearance is due? And if the renter can’t pay it, evictions will issue forthwith? Anyone with any sense who wants to stay where they are and not incur an eviction history and poor rental references is scrambling to make rent monthly despite the moratoriums. Those who can’t make it are facing serious hardship post-moratorium. Watch the homeless population skyrocket when the moratoriums are lifted.

It won't happen, democrats won't let it happen. One just has to stop thinking they need to pay rent whatever it takes. Selling a car is a huge mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yawn:: Part of being privileged is that I don't really need to care what you think about it.

If you didn't care, you wouldn't have responded to the thread. You do care.

[Anonymous]

OP, don’t forget some folks are EXTREMELY frugal. Like, penny-pinching savers who put away half their annual incomes, buy second hand EVERYTHING, rarely dine out or travel. If we all did that we’d be millionaires, too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I was with you 100% until the last paragraph. Many people posting their financial status here are totally out of touch. But “taxing them into oblivion” isn’t the answer. Taking what they’ve worked for/earned (and yes, often inherited) isn’t the answer. I just wish the people bragging about their assets understood they are not the norm. And I wish the people complaining about frivolous things like their kitchen cabinets or that they “only” have X amount saved realized how ridiculous they sound. And I wish people reading didn’t compare themselves to them because it’s not the average person. Instead of DCUM, it should be called DCUE - DC Urban Elitists.

DP. So if taxing the rich isn't the answer, then what is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forget the rich. The much poorer people( like myself) could be rich also if they kept working, but took a few chances with their money. I missed out on Amazon, Netwflix, apple and many more. $1k has been turned into hundreds of thousand. I wouldn't miss the couple of thousands every once in a while, but I never knew that such a small amount can grow so much. While I saved my couple of thousand or even more, rich were getting richer while investing it. I didn't because the concept that $7 Netflix can turn in $550 Netflix, didn't exist.
I had $3000 in 1997 and several times over the last 25 years. I had no idea what to do with it or where to put it. I think I just shopped it away most of the time. Robinhood and others have changed a few things for the poor. Many will lose money, but even more will make money. Again, many poor do have the money to make money. They don't trust or simply know about investing. I talked to all of my lower class co-workers about turning my little investments into $300k. They just smiled, said they wished and that was the end of their enthusiasm. The only one who was interested, has no work permit ad can't invest. Most have the extra thousands, but they'd rather shop it away. It's not even the medical bills for most, but the distrust and simply being so far from being a person who can invest.

this is true, too. I myself just can't put money somewhere where I can't take it out immediately without losing a chunk of it or going through some motions. I am working on my mindset.
However, people should be able to afford some kind of roof over their heads and some food on the table by just working. No expensive degrees and no investments. Unfortunately this is not the case anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I was with you 100% until the last paragraph. Many people posting their financial status here are totally out of touch. But “taxing them into oblivion” isn’t the answer. Taking what they’ve worked for/earned (and yes, often inherited) isn’t the answer. I just wish the people bragging about their assets understood they are not the norm. And I wish the people complaining about frivolous things like their kitchen cabinets or that they “only” have X amount saved realized how ridiculous they sound. And I wish people reading didn’t compare themselves to them because it’s not the average person. Instead of DCUM, it should be called DCUE - DC Urban Elitists.

DP. So if taxing the rich isn't the answer, then what is?

Taxing the rich isn't a plan. What are you going to do with that money when you get it?

[Anonymous]

8-9% of DC/MD/VA people have $1mm of investable assets outside of home equity.

sure we're privileged and there's a lot in this area. it's the best educated, highest median income area of the capital of the free freaking world!

why is this a surprise?

people want a place to anonymously talk about their rich people problems.

get over it.