> poor people don’t have to worry about having a car that keeps up with the Joneses
Neither do the old-money (or socialized to behave the same) rich. That's the behavior of someone who's worried about being mistaken for poor.
If you’re middle class with a shitty car, everyone thinks you’re poor. If you’re rich with a shitty car, everyone just thinks you’re painfully eccentric.
Sounds like a really tough life watching poor people have all the luck.
Re:Busyness leads to bad decisions
by SketchySeaBeast on Thursday December 05, 2019 @04:44PM
(#21716926)
Instead your buy a beat up old Camry, which was in poor maintenance condition, and keeps breaking down, so pretty soon you have to to either replace it or repair it, and that's not cheap, so you go to the cheapest options available, and because of that, those burn out sooner too, and the cycle continues.
Regardless of the hit it would take to your social status, you CAN choose to opt out of a rich neighbourhood or a rich car, if you need a car, you can't opt out of that choice. There's nowhere to opt out to.
On the other hand, consider — poor people don’t have to worry about having a car that keeps up with the Joneses, so they can drive around in a beater. If I had a dirty 1999 Camry then my rich neighbours would look askance at me.
If you think it’s expensive to be poor, try being rich.