Reply to why is DCUM so obsessed with social class/status?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So many threads on strivers, is this trashy/low class, how to fit in with the upper crust.  And it transcends all topics....parenting, real estate (duh), schools, travel, food, clothes, careers.  Is this food trashy? OMG I can't believe you take your family XYZ on vacation, it's so poor/trashy/middle class.  The intense preoccupation with picking THE right school, neighborhood.  The anxiety of having average kids (no AAP, average colleges, just ok in sports).  Is DCUM just a microcosm of upper middle class people's intense anxiety over class and falling out of said class?   Is it because DMV is a place of strivers and DCUM is a classist cesspool? Or if we dig deeper, are people just panicking that their kids will not have the same opportunities?[/quote]

A little of this and a little of that.  This area is filled with people right in that[b] top 3-8% of US HHI that are treading water and working hard not to go under.[/b]  And the reality is that a lot of the kids will have to work harder for fewer opportunities.
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How can you be on the top 3-8% of threading water? Living beyond your means?[/quote]

Because if you are in the top 3-8% but deeply, deeply insecure, your choices are going to stretch you thin.  The “right” zip code, schools, clothes, and travel are all VERY, VERY expensive.  Where can you cut corners and get away with not seeming “poor?”  How can you expose your children to the right influences so that they become insecure strivers instead of “poors?”  It’s all terribly stressful.

The pandemic seems to have made things worse.  I am nowhere near as addicted to DCUM as I was previously because it is so much more boring and people are as catty as ever.[/quote]

Income stagnation against rising cost of living and inflation means that wages have effectively been falling for several decades for households in the US below the 92nd/93rd percentile.  I forget the exact number off the top of my head.  Wages are effectively flat for the top 3-8ish percentile and growing for those above it.  There have been some interesting changes in conspicuous consumption as class markers over the last several years such as in educational spending for children (tutoring, summer camp, test prep, etc).

As much as you denigrate people who want to live in the "right" zip code, you're ignoring that this is largely an educational expense to ensure the kids don't fail and you're doing exactly the same thing, though maybe under a different spend category.

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