| > If you have to choose between buying a washing machine or sending your kids to a tutor. If you have to choose between buying everything as individual unit at the grocery store or cheaper-in-bulk goods from a big box store. If you have to choose between seeing the doctor now or wait and see if the issue goes away. If you have to choose between sending your kids to college or sending them off to work at 18. I kind of think these are just middle class issues rather than poverty; but you're right that this means different things to different people. > Decisions small and large, accumulate and create a much bigger impact than most people imagine. Now imagine having to make these decisions consistently for two decades until you can see the return on it - like say your kids actually getting a better job or you becoming an entrepreneur or finding a career ...etc. I think there's an element of "little bit at first, then all at once" -- i don't think it's that these individual items that "make wealth" but rather, they would be symptoms of different states of mind regarding stress, risk, etc. I climbed out of poverty and met my wife who's "comfortably middle-class" -- she has no appetite for risk (see dr straight away, get name-brand products, college first) and i have a much larger appetite for risk (wait and see, bulk-buy products, work first). Interesting to think about, thanks for the comment; i wonder if there is/should be a study / analysis on those questions. |
I don't think so. I grew up squarely middle class (and the question was never "can we afford health care or collage", but a weeklong trip to Disney world set our vacation budget back several years (to the point we could not take vacations, or only took small road trips).
The idea of not being able to afford basic health care or a university education should be utterly alien to the middle class.