We are in an interesting spot, income diversity wise. We live outside of DC in a close-in suburb. When we bought our home - 20+ years ago - it was very expensive. Now it’s astronomically expensive to live in our neighborhood and we could never afford to buy there. My spouse and I are both federal employees who make very good salaries. But for our street, our neighborhood, we are the least well off family. I don’t notice it often, other than to laugh at the grocery store when I’m parking my Honda in between a porsche and a maserati (not often, more likely a porsche and an audi, but it’s happened more than once). But sometimes it comes out. Like when my boys were very young, kindergarten and third grade, and they wanted to know why we “couldn’t take good spring break trips like everyone else to the caribbean or skiing out west or Paris or the mediterranean.” I laughed until I cried. Sorry kids, you’re getting a fun filled week at home, with possible day trip adventures to places within driving distance… like exciting Philadelphia. Who needs Paris when you can have a cheesesteak? 
But that did bring up the importance of talking about income levels and disparities with the boys and making sure they understood how truly lucky they are and what the world really looks like. And of course most of the kids they knew weren’t jetting off here and there, but the ones that were, were loud. So we made some broader systemic changes - we switched out which church we were attending for one with a broader group of congregants, we made sure summer camps included some community options that were likely to hit broader cross sections of the population, we made a family commitment to volunteering regularly at the local food pantry, we joined a scout troop that pulled from a broader range of incomes for the participants, and we talked about money and made sure that the kids understood that while there are certainly much wealthier people in our neighborhood, they were pretty darn lucky.
And for the most part, it’s been pretty even keeled. Up until this year. My older boy made friends with people who were all in either similar income brackets or who lived like they were. One family I suspect had much higher income than us, but they still lived in the original 1950s house, and drove cars until they couldn’t go anymore. They took some nice vacations, but nothing crazy extravagant. My younger son’s friends are… not like that. I don’t think it really hit home for me until the season of graduation parties this spring. I never really got to know the parents of these kids, so I had no clue. Until I started going to the graduation parties. The other families were all talking about their favorite high end vacation destinations, two of the parties were catered with wait staff and one was in a very expensive wedding venue, and for the first time in a long time I felt… different. Now, these people were never really going to be my friend, so it doesn’t matter. But things like - this summer my son needs my car to go to work - he’s working construction as he’s prepping for his construction management major and the sites are all over. It’s a pain in the butt for me - I get a ride to the metro and take the subway to work. If no one can give me a ride, I take a bus to the metro and then reverse that coming home. And my car, my 10 yo Honda CRV is now filthy from all the construction dirt. Hopefully he can clean it before I get it back. S25’s BFF, on the other hand, just got a brand new mercedes. Not a new-to-him used car, new off the lot. My life would be a lot easier if we could have bought S25 a car. But he picked the more expensive college, so there’s a trade off. For this other family, no trade off. I know full well that this isn’t the majority of people, but these folks - the ones who can afford the very high end graduation parties and regular high end vacations and to buy their kids expensive cars - those people are around.
