I’ve seen so many heated discussions in this forum about what income level qualifies as middle class; i hesitated to start another one. However, this article by Jesse Klein in the University of Michigan paper explains the variance as well as anyone can although I expect that some people will still be unable to get their heads around the concept. I was pretty amused my her take on how down to earth the moneyed Californians are as opposed to those materialistic wealthy Michigan types.
I dont live in a 2mm home, but I make similar 5 years out of school in a lower cost of living metropolitan area, and would call myself middle class. If you are cash flow rich but asset poor, you are middle class. That applies to most high income young people outside of the tech billionaires who struck gold no matter how well you do.
Fact of the matter is, if i magically had a 18 year old kid to send to college tomorrow, there’s no way I’d comfortably afford it. Multiple kids? Forget about it.
Bearcats, embracing the American version of free enterprise as you are known to do, does this not give you pause?
If sending your children to college looks hefty from your vantage, let alone impossible, when you currently earn about five times the average income of a family in my city…can you imagine how the truly middle…or mean class feels?
And feeling this way, as you do, can you see where “socialist” notions like European streaming for “free” (but merit-based) university, or Canadian public accessibility model starts to make sense in terms of having a well-educated workforce?
Just curious, not baiting you I swear But IMHO, higher education is pretty messed up in the US.
This makes me feel some type of way, though I can’t describe it.
Considering my parents make a little under 1/10th of what his make, in my eyes, he’s upper class. No matter whether he’s income rich but asset poor, income is still income. $250k a year, he’s pretty much upper class, if not upper-middle class.
But that’s just how it all looks like to a low income person.
She sounds spoiled at it was roundly condemned by those of us at Michigan who are poor and those who are really middle income.
She claims to be middle class because she doesn’t have a movie theater in her home. 8-|
ETA:
Yup. Seems middle class to me. They all just agonize over an exotic vacation or Versace. :D/
We clearly know different people. I’ve never had this happen to me and my cousin who is an undergrad here has never had this happen to her. Perhaps she hangs around with other “middle class” people.
Plus, most people I know working “minimum wage jobs” from middle income parents doing it to pay their rent and feed themselves- not saving up for a Patagonia (whatever that is).
That’s why the colleges don’t take them off your hands until they’re 18. Gives you some time to recover from orthodontia and build up some gelt so you’re ready for the school bill.
The author who wrote the part quoted by romani sounds very much like the spoiled undergrad I overheard whining to his girlfriend about how his life was ruined because his parents wouldn’t get him a Mercedes Benz for his 18th birthday present while I was visiting a HS friend on a Boston area campus during our freshman year in college.
Even at 17, all I could do was roll my eyes at the whining by someone older than me.
what was the point of the column?
To remind other students how little they have?
To rub in the faces of those who not only do not make $250,000 a year, but they don’t even * know * anyone who does?
Most people can’t afford to attend school out of state, and if they lived in a state with as many higher education options as California, why would they need to?
I don’t know about now, but in the '90s, many California residents who attended OOS colleges did so because they were well-off AND failed to gain admission to the more desired UC schools like Berkeley or UCLA.
Considering many UMich admits back in the '90s were admitted from my HS as OOS with GPAs in the B/B- range, this probably applied to Californian UMich students from that period as well.
Truly this girl shows her ignorance and spoiled attitude in this one passage. She may not be wealthy but she is certainly not suffering or lacking anything.
UM is a big place . Any large uni will have numbskulls. Unfortunately I agree with you – although it’s unfortunate b/c there are many solid kids there – a few bad (and prominent) apples spoils the bunc. But I get it. Stuff like this (and those frat/sorority ski lodge incidents) make it VERY HARD to feel good about the uni. Combined with several idiot snob scenarios I ran into while I was there on campus – it makes it hard. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17224449/#Comment_17224449
and I’m REALLY struggling to continue to like the Uni.
But IMHO, higher education is pretty messed up in the US.