It's All Relative, I Guess
Einstein's Theory of Relativity is one of the most important concepts in the history of man. Though it spawned from physics, relativity can be applied to any situation where there is some kind of comparison. But it's taken to a whole new level on this forum about household income (HHI) that I came across on UrbanBaby.com.
As you can see, someone posted on this site a forum topic that asked - "What's your HHI and do you FEEL poor, middle class, upper middle class or rich where you live? No judging."
The responses here range from honest to fake and hilarious to sad. Here is what I've learned from this:
Rich, Upper Middle Class, Middle Class, and Poor seem to be relative terms that are functions of where you live, the lifestyle to which you're accustomed, and with whom you associate and not just absolutely based on income alone.
People in NYC are either totally delusional, completely disconnected from the real world, or just have no idea how to balance their checkbooks. There's no doubt that the cost of living in NYC is astronomical but if a family makes "about $3m this year...been $1-6 the last 10 years" and "feels very middle class," or a household makes "$300K per year and feels so, so, so poor," then there is something so, so, so wrong on some level. By the way, I ignored the "no judging" request here.
What are your thoughts? Do you find yourself thinking about things (social status or anything else) in relative or absolute terms? My NYC friends - is it really THAT bad living in the city with your paycheck or are NYC residents' views totally skewed? Let me know!