Re:Cities Experiment with Remedy for Poverty: Cash, No Strin...
by legerdemain on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @07:01PM
(#24634071)
In college, I lived with roommates in a working class urban neighborhood three or four blocks away from campus. The block I lived on featured the convenience of only one side of the street having houses on it. The other was nose-in parking, facing a creek.
The cars that lined the other side of the street were uniformly nice. Every time I remarked about that, my roommates would dump on the working poor for buying showy cars they couldn't afford.
They never once considered that the street was used as free overflow parking by university employees, which even cursory observation showed to be the case.
So yes, "they buy nice cars they can't afford" is a mean cliche, even if I'm sure you can find some case of it being true.
While a generalisation it is true that some economically disadvantaged spend a lot on 'luxuries' like shoes or cars. Often this is for social signally and sometimes because it's a luxury they can afford now vs those which appear completely unattainable forever.
Some rich people too spend extravagantly beyond their means. It's just less obvious since they aren't obviously hurting for money on other ways.