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Notes -
I fully acknowledge all of this, and I’m not suggesting that the world hasn’t become a more complex place than it was decades ago. What I’m saying is even back then, we weren’t a family that lived to the maximum of our income (and we could’ve lived quite a luxurious lifestyle in our immediate family alone). Not many people that I meet today who aren’t my age and don’t come from that kind of background assume the same mindset. Of course everyone’s case is unique, but the attendant, generational inflation in lifestyle is something that’s undeniable across the board.
I grew up in a place that was solidly middle upper class, with one side of my family who came from fairly rich and prestigious career driven background with a strong military footprint, and the other which came from grinding poverty but was extremely ambitious and self-educated, almost like something you’d see out of Good Will Hunting, and very unassuming from the eyes of other people. You’d never in a million years suspect they were that way, but they practically haunted the libraries every day of their lives. And when my father ultimately moved into the big cities, he climbed the career ladder during the dot com boom like it was a cakewalk. They just simply didn’t have money. But when our neighborhood defunded the local police stations due to budget cuts and we ultimately moved to the adjacent next city over (which still ended up being affected by things), there was a near instantaneous and overnight shift from an upscale community into one that’s made national headlines due to narcotics trafficking. I lived in a hood and on a cross street that was violently contested between two competing gangs, where there was violence almost every day and a reported murder practically every other week. My father was in a bind because he didn’t want to uproot my sibling and I from our deeply entrenched family connections and all the friends I had whilst at the same time, didn’t want us living in the kind of hood he grew up in.
I fully agree with most of what you’ve said here, but I’d implore most people who look at others who complain about their financial situation and just ask yourself, “Based on what I know about this person, how much of what they spend would I characterize for purposes someone should regard as desirable.” You’ll find for yourself they could downgrade and cut back on quite a bit.
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