Posted on 01/31/2008 6:06:33 AM PST by canuck_conservative
That wasn’t gold.
We have very few black people here but we have the same thing. $10,000 trailer with a $30,000 truck out front pulling a $30,000 boat.
Up to this point, no one has pointed out that these “poor” people are getting their needs (housing, food, utilities) subsidized by others in order to “afford” the conspicuous consumption that we see.
What you be sayin’? ;)
A more sophisticated observer would conclude that the person with $15 Costco sneakers on his feet is more likely to have money in the bank, at least $135 more...
Of course, you wouldn’t want to say “What are you saying?” because speaking proper English would be “acting white”, as another poster pointed out.
I never got a look at the inhabitants, but my folks referred to them as "trash" -- and they said, "Make your personal priorities the exact opposite of those folks'..."
Another observation:
This explains some of the liberal elitist mentality as well.
They want to “signal” their superiority over everyone else, but find it difficult in our country/society/economy to do so “on the cheap” because everyone can afford cars, flying commercial, cell phones, entertainment, etc.
Libs would like to price these things out of our reach through government regulation in order to set themselves above everyone.
Ping
I agree. Some in the black community would argue that they don't value the future because they see no hope in the future; especially for young males who see death or jail as the inevitable in their future. However, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I am often confused by poor young black kids sporting $5,000 dollars worth of tattoos.
It would be interesting to know what the conspicuous consumption signaling items for white middle class people are. I wonder how many I've got.
What I have noticed most, among black women, is that whatever their financial circumstances, they are often very well put together. The hair is done, the nails are done, the clothes are nice. I just figured pride of appearance took priority over other things.
Especially when the hand on one of those $2500 arms is holding a Glock pointing at you, know what I mean?
Wouldn’t dream of it - you’re “keepin’ it real”.
There are places in white America, particularly suburban America, where white are very very materialistic and very very spoiled. But somehow there is a myth that because there are inner city pockets of African Americans who are living with a lot less money, that their kids cannot be spoiled. You can go to inner city schools with heavy African American populations and you will find kids just as spoiled as the white kids in the wealthy suburbs. I have posted this before but it is worth posting again. There is a inner middle city school not far from me, where there is “poverty” as measured by the government. Over 90 per cent of the students qualify for free lunch, yet over half the population has a cell phone. Cosby is right, but he could state it simpler. African American kids are deprived. They are deprived of an educationally stimulating home environment, but they are not that deprived when it comes to materials wants.
Nike must be giddy about the upcoming “stimulus”.
These change with time, of course, but Paul Fussell's excellent 1982 book Class is very accurate about a lot of these identifiers. For the middle-middle class he cites:
--wearing logo clothing they think to be prestigious, like Polo or Ralph Lauren, because they think this is the stuff upper-class people wear
--working hard to maintain a flawless lawn and conform to neighborhood ideas about what's attractive
--living in a community with a community association
--having a job with a demanding corporation
--(at present, not in '82) filling your vinyl-sided suburban house with granite countertops, shiny pre-finished hardwood flooring, reproduction antique furniture, reproduction art, large color photos of the family hanging on the walls, store-bought silver flatware and dishes, and new "oriental" rugs
--giving your kids names you think are upper-class but aren't, like Madison and Preston
--running, biking, or going to the gym to lose weight (the lower class don't care if they're fat and the upper class are already skinny)
--believing passionately that if you just try hard enough and go to the right schools you can achieve the American dream complete with a three-car garage
Fussell also discusses the stratification of the middle class into lower-middle and upper-middle. He's pretty funny but also a bit nasty, and he has a slightly outdated checklist in the back of the book by which you can estimate your social class by the contents of your living room. This is a hoot.
I suspect that this has long ago been researched and published by sociologists, and is now in use in "market engineering".
I'm sure they've got it nicely broken down by "white male", "white female", "black male", "black female", and of late, "Hispanic male", and "Hispanic female" (and probably many more and finer gradations than those). If they haven't, then the marketing professionals aren't doing their jobs very well.
Don’t be a hater. ;)
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