A while back I was thinking a lot about how TV and movies usually do a pretty crappy job of portraying lower and middle class lifestyles. Like, characters would complain about money struggles but they live in large, nicely furnished homes, often in expensive locations, they have decent cars, often the mom stays at…

You’re going to find a lot of bitterness when you talk about money. fortheloveofbeets is correct in the comment of wealthy people not talking about money only benefits the wealthy. You have the luxury of not having to be bitter because you didn’t miss out on that school trip you were dying to go on. I’m not bitter at…

I think the problem they (bitterly) bring up, is that this is being treated like a big deal when people don’t realize that their family is rich as compared to those of us who were actually poor and knew it. I’m not going to knock anyone because their family has money - but these stories definitely show a huge…

Yeah, I would second this. It’s weird how rich people always think “rich” is like one income bracket above what they are. Especially if their parents did things like clip coupons and do hand-me-downs among the siblings/coupons, or rarely went out to eat. Those are behaviors. Richness is more about income, and…

I knew I was fucking poor, let me tell you.

It will help them understand that they will need to work. But I wonder if this type of thing is also how rich kids grow up thinking that poor people are lazy. Their parents attribute all of their success to hard work, implying that anyone who wasn’t as successful didn’t work as hard.

Oh, but the poors like you and me are lucky, because we always knew we were poor! They are the true victims here, with all that surprise wealth!

Yeah... it’s really hard having grown up as a poor kid to see their surprise.

But you have a safety net. If something really bad happened to you, your parents would help you, right? I also think a lot of well-off people who fancy themselves self-sufficient don't realize the extent of the the life chances they've gotten just from knowing how to act around other people in their class.

It is the new “I didn’t know I was white”.

I kind of wish this entire comments section would die in a dumpster fire.

For sure wasn’t commenting on your ability to finance yourself. I was just saying I hear this again and again.

Trenchant analysis of class relations.

“But they put six kids through college with no loans, and none of us ever had to save for home down payments.”

I think it’d make a huge difference. I’m not so concerned about giving kids a hard number as making it clear where your wealth is relative to your area and to society as a whole. That’s not a means of reinforcing class divisions, it’s a means of making them plain and visible in ways we’d often rather not. Your rich…

It’s incredibly frustrating to have to sit here and try to justify to you that class privilege and the denial and cluelessness is a major problem—-and this type of discussion is part of the problem of class issues. I’m tired of trying to make people from much more privileged backgrounds feel better.

This is the same thing I hear from every rich kid.

I was well aware of differences in privilege from a very young age. Kids who had more money did all sorts of things that never let me forget it. And I’ve had that experience in all sorts of venues.

Money isn’t weird. We live in an unfair class structure where there are social sanctions against acknowledging it. There is nothing weird about it. It’s the norm.

At least you were able to see past your own privilege and recognize how far ahead of everyone else you were.