<p>Caring for a disabled child is very difficult under the best of circumstances.</p>
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<p>Yes, the high achieving kids of low SES families have a similar chance of graduating college that low achieving kids of high SES families do. That does not mean that the kids of low SES families have no chance, but they have less of a chance than those from high SES families.</p>
<p>“We took everyone out to dinner. We wanted to say thank you for assisting in a difficult matter. We chose Spago…That Spago…Wolfgang Puck’s Spago. The dinner for the 6 of us totalled over 1200. Cocktails, wine (bil chose the wine…150 for a wine that was mediocre, and 225 for a good wine.”</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is surprised by stories of taking multiple people out and having the bill be in four digits; that’s par for the course in a nice restaurant. I still maintain that $3,750 for a bottle of wine falls under more money than sense, and in my experience truly wealthy people don’t throw away money in such showy and superficial ways. </p>
<p>Nobody here fessed up to paying $3750 for a bottle of wine . :)</p>
<p>I would note that one characteristic of being rich, at least for some people, may be just not knowing how much certain things cost. My son had a rich roommate who had plain white t-shirts from Dolce & Gabbana (sp?), something I know only because I saw one crumpled up on the floor. This isn’t showy–but my guess is that somebody in his family just bought some white T-shirts. They just didn’t pay any attention to how much they cost. It could be the same for that bottle of wine.</p>
<p>There is actually a difference between a $250 t-shirt and a $3700 bottle of wine. I would spend $250, but not $3700 for a shirt. There are many very fine wines available for $250, so it’s a ridiculous waste of money to spend $3700 for the same thing. I buy expensive clothes and don’t think of it as a waste of money, because there is some value. Clothing can be worn for years, and better clothing usually looks and feels superior to the cheap stuff. I love good food, but I wouldn’t spend $3700 on a beverage or food item - not when an equally good product can be had for far less. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.neimanmarcus.com/Dolce-Gabbana-Short-Sleeve-T-Shirt-White-Apparel/prod168320051_cat47930750__/p.prod?icid=&searchType=EndecaDrivenCat&rte=%252Fcategory.jsp%253FitemId%253Dcat47930750%2526pageSize%253D120%2526No%253D0%2526refinements%253D&eItemId=prod168320051&cmCat=product”>http://www.neimanmarcus.com/Dolce-Gabbana-Short-Sleeve-T-Shirt-White-Apparel/prod168320051_cat47930750__/p.prod?icid=&searchType=EndecaDrivenCat&rte=%252Fcategory.jsp%253FitemId%253Dcat47930750%2526pageSize%253D120%2526No%253D0%2526refinements%253D&eItemId=prod168320051&cmCat=product</a></p>
<p>Actually, you can get a plain white men’s t-shirt from the D&G online store for only $245, so $250 is an exaggeration. Personally, I find that much more mind-boggling than a $3700 bottle of wine. I can’t believe that any plain white t-shirt can be superior enough to justify that cost. But since it has no logo (at least on the outside), you aren’t even showing off by purchasing it. So my conclusion is that it must be purchased by people who simply don’t pay any attention to what things cost.</p>
<p>Perhaps to put it a different way, if you are rich, you may be willing to pay substantially higher prices for only marginal increases in (perceived) quality. Of course, a lot of rich people still don’t do this.</p>
<p>It has a D&G logo on the neck, which is why it is so expensive. There are “a few” people who will more for logos.</p>
<p>My hair stylist wears loads of D&G, and believe me, he can spot a D&G t-shirt from across the room, logo or not.</p>
<p>The $3,750 bottle of wine story was about how somebody got ripped off by the waitress. The guy didn’t know much about wine, asked for an appropriate recommendation, and she said it was thirty-seven, fifty. It wasn’t a terribly expensive restaurant. I don’t think anyone on here said they would pay that for wine, and neither was he.</p>
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<p>You don’t need a logo. It’s the way it’s knit, cut, sewed/hemmed, and others that create the look.</p>
<p>Bringing back to the original question, I am wondering that our social values may have changed from admiring middle class values to admiring upper class opportunities. It could be a reflection of diverging pay scale between ordinary workers and top positions and the anxiety of making it to the upper half and not left behind in the lower half.</p>
<p>@dstark wrote:</p>
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<p>Implying that his friend thinks nothing of paying thousands for a bottle of wine.</p>
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<p><a href=“http://store.dolcegabbana.com/us/dolce-gabbana/short-sleeve-t-shirts_cod37576548ji.html#itemPage=1”>http://store.dolcegabbana.com/us/dolce-gabbana/short-sleeve-t-shirts_cod37576548ji.html#itemPage=1</a> indicates that these cost $245.</p>
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<p>I take it his shop is not a $10 barber shop.</p>
<p>Bogleheads had a thread “Premium Products That Are Worth It To You” at <a href=“Premium Products That Are Worth It To You - Bogleheads.org”>Premium Products That Are Worth It To You - Bogleheads.org;
<p>I might have to look through the list, but I don’t think D&G T-shirts made it :)</p>
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<p>Well, the upper half of household income starts at about $50,000 per year…</p>
<p>However, the point of the article is that, while the $200,000 income household should be better off than the $50,000 income household, if they look at the $2,000,000 income household as a model of what to aim for, that may contribute to their feeling “poor”. The concentration of income and wealth gains in the top 0.1% of the income range may be accentuating this feeling.</p>
<p>“Implying that his friend thinks nothing of paying thousands for a bottle of wine.”</p>
<p>Certainly someone will pay that kind of money for wine, otherwise it wouldn’t be produced. But from the posts, it appeared to me that people were thinking that some people involved in this discussion would pay big bucks for wine. I’m sure many of us know people who would, but they aren’t on this thread.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus, when we first came to our town some 25+ years ago, my previous wife decided that she should go to a Girl Scout Brownies meeting and introduce our daughter to it. She came home with a dropped jaw. We were relatively comfortable, but my ex said that perhaps we didn’t know what we’d gotten ourselves into.</p>
<p>The troop was discussing where to go for their annual trip. My ex expected Washington DC, Gettysburg, etc. Instead, she said a kid blurted out, “Lauren’s dad has a jet; let’s go to the Caribbean.”</p>
<p>And, remarried and doing better than ever before, in a town like this, I will always be the poor guy on the block :)</p>
<p>Bob, my kids had some friends with that kind of wealth. Very sadly, one of their friend’s dad and brother died in their private airplane. But we always told the kids to never be jealous of that kind of wealth, just enjoy it if they got invited to do fun things with their friends.</p>
<p>(My wife said he isn’t careless with his money which is true).</p>
<p>I was not implying he would spend $3750 for a bottle of wine. </p>
<p>He won’t.</p>
<p>“Bringing back to the original question, I am wondering that our social values may have changed from admiring middle class values to admiring upper class opportunities. It could be a reflection of diverging pay scale between ordinary workers and top positions and the anxiety of making it to the upper half and not left behind in the lower half.”</p>
<p>I don’t buy that social values have changed, or that there was some golden era in which nobody cared about displaying / showing wealth. Hello, Newport, Rhode Island. </p>