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Date Posted: 04:35:01 07/19/01 Thu
Author: anonymous.
Subject: something that has been bothering me

ok hun, i know that you dont want to hear this because you have your set ideas and everything, but i just want to bring this up...as an intellectual conversation only.

in one of your articles you say that someone cannot be "poor" if their parents make $100,000 a year.

i disagree. now i know, you are thinking that my idea of "poor" is probably warped by my "posh" parents. i disagree about that, too, as i will describe below.

My parents combine make just under $100,000 a year. my father brings home the bread with about $66,000, and my mother (who never graduated college) takes in about $33,000.

Now, that may seem like a lot...and it is, i know. but you must also consider how much we are in debt. Right now, all totalled, we are probably in the hole about $300,000. We own a very small one story house, which we have mortaged twice.

In the past 6 months we have had our electricity shut off twice. We have gone without grocery shopping at least 10 times that i can recall. We have come within 1 day of having our water shut off.

We have driven our cars until they were out of gas, then relied on forms of public transportation because we could not affort to refil our tanks. Those cars, i might add, are all pre-1993 automobiles; a 1992 ford aerostar, a 1992 ford festiva, and a 1989 dodge ram p/u. All break down with a certain degree of regularity.

We cannot afford to purchase new cars, and we do not have the good credit to buy them with.

I currently go to a community college. I am supposed to register on friday, but will be registering late because we cannot afford to pay the $11/per unit that it costs. If we did, we would not be eating next week.

Now, i know it sounds like i am unloading all of my problems on you, but i just want to know if this is what you meant by "posh." I realize that there are people worse off, but i also realize that having parents who make that much money does not necessarily mean that you GROSS that much money.

Now, perhaps someone who can afford to go to a university and NOT work does not truly understand what it means to "barely scape by," but I actually do. I cannot remember the last time i had cash in my wallet, save when i am on my way to the grocery store.

And its not like we squander our money. Not a penny of it was spent on alcohol, cigarettes or illit drugs.

I work for a living, and all of my earnings go straight to my parents, to help pay our debts. I work full time (while being in school full-time), and do not see more than $40 per pay period of my cash.

I just want to know what part of this is considered "posh?" Now, i realize that there are homeless people on the street, and I am sooooooo much better off than them. I am not even considering being grouped in the same category as them. I realize i am middle class, and dont ever try to deny it. My question to you is, do you acknoledge that one's class status is not based upon how much money they earn, but how much the gross?

I am somewhat annoyed by the article that says that anyone who's parents make over $100,000 is posh, because i do not consider any part of my life "posh."

And i realize that you might say that is because i never truly have been "poor." I might, however, counter with the fact that i doubt that you have either.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. I look forward to your insight.

(p.s. be proud, this is the first time i have come here BEFORE checking the SI board)

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