Rich people, with their fancy mustard and whatnot, are the ever-loving WARST, are they not? But do you know what’s EVEN WARSE? When rich people claim to “feel middle class” because of all that terrible private school tuition and week-long Aspen vacations they have to pay for.
Today’s Worst Assholes Ever of the Day are the mommy-commenters (mommenters?) of NYC parenting forum UrbanBaby.com. Yeah, I had no idea such a cunty site existed, either — but it does! (One of today’s hot topics: “Is nanny poaching a problem?”)
This week someone started a thread with a simple question:
What’s your hhi [household income] and do you FEEL poor, middle class, upper middle class or rich where you live. No judging.
So let’s read some responses, and do so without judgment or malice. Hahaha, no. I’m kidding. We shall verily judge these assholes!
Here are just a few of the gems (trust me, there are so many more):
$700,000 poor. NYC
$350K, so, so, so poor. Not being dramatic or anything, really poor. We totally struggle every day. UES.
Last year 2mm, prior year 1mm, before that 475. Feel middle class.
1.2 Middle class at private school, but I guess we’re UMC.
HHI is 1mil. We live in Harlem. We are comfortable but not rich here in NYC.
About $3m this year…been $1-6 the last 10 years. Feels very middle class. UES.
We would be considered very wealthy. Dh owns several business and in a given year with bonus he will make upwards of 20M a year depending on bonus, much more sometimes but only a very good year. We live on the UES and I would assume we are considered upper class. Although I know people with much more and people with old money and “names” who I am sure consider us less than.
Remember, as long as there’s someone richer than you, you’re being looked down on and oppressed! The opposite is also true: As long as there’s some asshole worse off than you, it’s all good! (These two statements explain 99% of the modern Republican Party.)
Last year $650k. This year $375-450k depending on bonus. I know rationally we are doing well, but we still feel pinched. We try to save our bonus and spend our base ($275k) and with 2 DCs in private pre-school, modest place on far UWS, and pretty modest life, we rip through that $275k incredibly fast. But for those haters, here is the math: $275k = $137k after tax. That is a bit more than $11k per month. After rent, it’s $6200. Annualize preschool and subtract, we are down to $3500. And between all of our other expenses, somehow we burn through that. And I promise we do NOT live big (vacations, etc.). But we do live comfortably- have a car that is garaged, do take 1-2 trip to visit family via plane a year, etc.
This math just doesn’t add up to me. I think she forgot her husband’s raging coke/hooker habit.
I’m always amazed at how people bash others on this board. my dh earns a little over 500k and i have always felt poor in nyc. i was probably one of the poorest if not the poorest in dd’s preschool class. in nyc 500k is not a lot of money. yes, i have ft nanny. i have 3 children under the age of 5. we manage to pay our bills. we are now living with no money in the bank as we were pushed out of the city and purchased a house for over a million dollars. we did minor renovations. minor became major as it cost much more than we anticipated. we can afford the small daily things. it’s the big stuff that becomes problematic. it’s easy to feel poor when so many are receiving help from family members to pay for nursery school or camp. overall, it’s easy to feel “poor” in nyc.
Jesus Fucking Christ.
HISTORY LESSON FOLKS: For all the folks who love saying “Anything over ____ cannot be middle class because the average HHI is ___ in NYC/US” do not know what middle class is. MIDDLE CLASS IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN DEFINED AS MEDIAN INCOME. In 18th and 19th century Europe, the middle class was defined as shopkeepers and other small business owners, but this was not to say 50% of the population achieved this. Let’s stop pretending middle class ever meant the middle 33%-66% of income earners; it never did. Rant over.
Ahoy! Peasantry! Your silly notions of middle class make me laugh. Now excuse me while my fox hunt tramples through your pitiful little cabbage field.
