I'd say it depends on the person -- but if you want to withdraw from regular society, then you can.

Haha...I love the irony of seeing this comment on HN, where the average employed reader probably makes double the median US household income and many of the rest are entrepreneurs trying to make millions in a few short years of hard work.

I voted you back up, because it's important to bear this in mind. This is not your regular crowd, the vox populi here is not remotely representative.

"the average employed reader probably makes double the median US household income"

I'd clarify this to be relative to local conditions, taking into account the fairly large foreign readership (of which I am a part!) but it's probably about right. Do I smell a salary survey poll coming on ..

My parents are cleaners, but I'm not sure how much knowing me helps my peers at Princeton talk to them. It definitely helps, but the extent is hazy enough and more importantly my situation rare enough that I understand his point. Moreover, many people don't have any idea the backgrounds their friends come from: they can simply assume their friends are in a similar situation, since this assumption is right in a vast majority of cases.