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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   35271 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025

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Anecdotally, my college friend group includes a guy who dropped out to live with his parents and do gig work and a high-powered lawyer who inherited a few million, and despite their significantly different socioeconomic classes still live materially similar lives and are still good friends. Sure, the lawyer can afford to live in a massive house, fly business and collect a bunch of expensive trinkets, but when it comes down to it neither of them worry about their basic needs, and spend most of their leisure time doing the same things; working out, playing the same video games, watching the same tv/movies/anime, scrolling too much on social media and going traveling to similar places from time from time.

One big difference is that a rich guy can throw cool parties and have lots of people come to hang out at his house. A middle class person can't do that, but can at least invite a few friends or a date to come over and watch TV. The dropout living with his parents has a hard time even doing that, he's pretty much forced to always go to other people's houses for social interaction. So there's a real power dynamic at play.

When the rich guy inevitably develops a major health problem, he will pay to have it treated. A pineapple picker lacks this. Easy to survive problems become deadly when you are poor.

One big difference is that a rich guy can throw cool parties and have lots of people come to hang out at his house.

That'll be a great advantage to him as long as he's strongly an extrovert. There's also the aspect that he'll have to clean the mess all up afterwards or hire some maid to do so, and that his social circle will come to expect him to keep throwing cool parties.

he's pretty much forced to always go to other people's houses for social interaction

If he lives in a community where third places don't exist at all, then yes.

My brother is pretty much the dropout guy. Rents a room in a friend's house, makes very little money through various gigs (and some less-legal stuff), but has no space to host or otherwise have people over at a whim.

But he's so damn affable and charismatic that he never lacks for invites to go and do interesting stuff. The dude took a day trip down to Key West yesterday (didn't even invite me) and a couple days before that he was hanging out with some guy who, no joke, is building a large reptile zoo facility on his property.

I don't envy him, per se, but I don't get invited out nearly as much as he does. I have to do the hard hosting work. And someone has to.

There's also the aspect that he'll have to clean the mess all up afterwards or hire some maid to do so, and that his social circle will come to expect him to keep throwing cool parties.

Thankfully my friends are pretty tidy guests, and don't tend to expect me to host. Hell, they seem nervous even asking.

Or just, if he wants any social contact at all. Doesn't have to be a wild, raucus party. It just becomes increasingly awkward asking your friends to hang out in your mom's basement or a tiny studio apartment as you get older. People will also reciprocate by inviting you to their own parties.

If he lives in a community where third places don't exist at all, then yes.

3rd spaces usually cost money, though. Maybe the hippie dropout is happy to hang out in the public park or town square, but the millionaire lawyer guy tends to get tired of those places pretty quickly. He might want to go on a ski trip or to a fancy restaurant, and then what does the hippie dropout guy do? Beg for a handout? Just skip that one?

Friends had a good episode about the awkwardness of doing shared experiences with a friend group where people have vastly different incomes: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EYb9jnt2cv4

These are all good points. However, I'd mention that none of that is relevant to the examples the OP gave, namely "working out, playing the same video games, watching the same tv/movies/anime, scrolling too much on social media and going traveling to similar places from time from time".

True. And warren buffet and Trump are both famously big fans of regular coca cola, which i assume is just the same for them as it is for anyone else.

Lets conpromise and say, there are some experiences universal regardless of income, but others really require money. And my opinion is that a fulfilling life in modern western society really does require some rrasonable amount of money. Theres a thin libe between "free spirited hippy" and "miserable homeless bum"

And probably that line is labelled: 'has options'.

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