On Money:
For some reason I have gotten various "free" subscriptions to several magazines. I think I used airline points that were about to expire to purchase the latest round of magazines. One of those was Travel and Leisure magazine.
It struck me while reading this magazine that there was absolutely no way that I, on a college professor's salary, could ever or would ever stay in most of the places that they were recommending. "It is a bargain at only $249 for a double." Two-hundred and forty-nine dollars? A bargain?
Then it struck me. I am in a demographic that doesn't follow most consumer trends. I don't make a lot of money. In fact a hotel for $59 a night seems like an extravagance. So as far as income goes, I'm right in there with the "average" American household. No problem there. I'm comfortable enough, and I feel like I'm doing a service to humanity by trying to get my students to appreciate our collective glory and failure.
So, what is the point? I'm outside a demographic because I read. The fact that I read regularly and voraciously puts me in a very small demographic (I've seen the stats, I don't care to look them up right now, suffice it to say that most people do not read regularly). I am one of the people who is interested in world travel and so an article on quaint places to stay in Tuscany interests me. But I will never be able to afford a week in Tuscany with my own villa and a staff for a mere $5000. Five-thousand dollars in a huge amount of money for me. The best vacation I can hope for is an all-inclusive in Cancun or traveling with my family and staying at friends' houses along the way.
This year I'm even concerned that the gas prices will make our yearly trip to my wife's home about $500 more expensive than it has been in the past.
I guess my point is that it seems like there are more than the haves and the have-nots. There are also the ones who know what the haves have and also know that they will never have those things I'm still searching for the meaning in this. I think it has to do with my own envy of those who have mixed with a bit of self-righteous anger that those who have more are often unresponsive to the needs of those who have less. (This isn't to say I want to have anyone's stuff. I do, however, find it repulsive that some people spend more on their SUVs than others make in a year.)
2 comments:
Be thankful that you have enough friends in the world to be able to stay with them wherever you go. Friends are better than the best 5-Star Hotel. You can even stay with relatives if you can find any.
Your Cousin
I hadn't thought or read this post since I wrote it in 2004. It's interesting to compare the financial world today to that 4 years ago. Four years ago our culture at large was celebrating excess, expansion, growth and luxury. Right now everyone is talking about cutbacks, etc.
It seems to me now that many of the people who celebrated their excessive spending were actually living a lie -- A gigantic version of the person who lives in a wealthy manner until he or she maxes out all of her credit cards and then it all bottoms out. Our whole economy has done that and the excess that seemed to me in 2004 unfair and unreachable, now seems obscene and reprehensible.
On the plus side, as my cousin (of whom I have so many I can't even guess which one this is - but thanks!) says, friends and family still remain and an event like this economic downturn gives us the opportunity to reconnect and to spend some time with those we care about.
On the negative side, my newfound righteousness about the wickedness of the wealthy feels awfully self-justifying and haughty in its own way, and that's just what I'm trying to avoid.
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