Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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After recently becoming rich (read: middle class in socal), I've started doing more rich people things; eg I'm a member of a couple museums I like near me, the gemological institute, and I bought a membership and season tickets to my local orchestra. Hence, I've been going to more soirees, concerts, events and such and have developed some feelings.
Re: Some types of 'cultural' activities are just better than other types. I know, I know, taste and what have you. That said: if the only thing that you do outside of work and buy shit is watch sports, I am tired as fuck of you. Even if I disagree with 80% of the people here on 90% of reality, at least your fucking here! That already give you a bunch of points or interest.
Everyone I meet at these highfalutin type situations likes dumb garbage prole entertainment. They watch sitcoms or NFL or MMA or whatever. The problem seems to be when that is the ONLY thing you consume.
Secondly: Man I love having a social circle that includes some cultural elites. A lot of dudes I used to be around in trade actually had more money than these people, but they spent it on eg a bigger truck or cloths or shitty furniture that is still expensive for some reason or vacations to Cabo or Acapulco. I know that finding these things to be fucking lame as fuck and boring makes me an elitist piece of shit but fuck man. Acapulco? You're gonna spend 10k for 7 days in a shitty hotel?
Basically, I am devastated but unsurprised to find that the better half actually do live better.
Also I got the subject of my most recent ban in the mail and it is fucking beautiful; a heavily used Stanley no. 8 type 9 jointer from 1900ish in nearly mint condition somehow; many carful owners. It is now my precious son and lives on a special shelf so I can admire it from my computer.
The US is weird among Western countries in that the government doesn’t heavily subsidize highbrow arts, which means seeing opera, large orchestras, ballet etc is very expensive if you want non-shit seats.
In Europe, probably 80% of the average opera ticket is government funded. Almost all orchestras are substantially state-funded. Ballet is very heavily funded. ‘Higher brow’ theater (at both the avant garde end and the by-the-book Shakespeare end) is very much subsidized too.
I think this affects cultural perception in an interesting way. In the US, going to see these things isn’t necessarily a rich people thing (there are plenty of schoolteachers and college professors at Rachamaninov at the NY Phil), but it has the cultural cachet of being higher brow, higher class, and above all older, since young people aren’t paying $130 a ticket (even the cheap seats are like $90). In Britain/France/Germany, a lot of the audience to these kinds of things pay $20 a seat because they’re so heavily subsidized, so you see a lot more students, young people in general.
In the end, the European approach is preferable. The government wastes so much money on supporting the bottom of society that, at the very least, a few billion for the legitimate high culture of this civilization is owed and earned.
This doesn't really make sense an an explanation. First, Americans tend to have more disposable income than Europeans to begin with. Secondly, tickets for the sporting events, EDM concerts and other low brow media are even more expensive, yet extremely popular.
Yes, because they’re more popular. Nobody’s denying that 22 year olds will save up to spend $3000 on Taylor Swift tickets, but that doesn’t mean their price sensitivity on high culture is zero.
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