Comments on: Middle Class in the City

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:51:20 +0000

@cryptolect what kind of crazy math is that?? Back in my salad days I made around $30k a year and my takehome was around $2,500 … now I live on a juuust above minimum-wage grad student stipend and I still make nearly $1500 a month (I’d make that much if I didn’t have to pay for health care.)

By: Jimmy Kibble

Jimmy Kibble — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:07:57 +0000

@angry little raincloud I am, however, incredibly lucky to have such amazing friends and roommates. I tell them that all the time.

By: Jimmy Kibble

Jimmy Kibble — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:05:55 +0000

By: Jimmy Kibble

Jimmy Kibble — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:04:35 +0000

@angry little raincloud I get that. But what I was trying to say, and still believe, is that low rent is not just a chance thing I came across. It is a lifestyle choice. Here, if you don’t believe me, check out this craigslist post for an apt much like mine. Its further north than most people go, but I’m in a wonderful neighborhood:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fee/3566547185.html

By: WaityKatie

WaityKatie — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:39:16 +0000

@WaityKatie Which is to say, I suppose, that I view our class structure more as the 99 percent (workers) vs. the 1 percent (owners). There really is no proper “middle class” with distinct interests anymore.

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:37:35 +0000

@WaityKatie The nature of class in the modern working world is a recurring problem for Marxists.

By: WaityKatie

WaityKatie — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:36:35 +0000

@josefinastrummer Philadelphia is astoundingly cheap compared to the other two cities I’ve lived in (DC and NYC). And NYC is astoundingly expensive compare to either of those other two. There’s just no comparison. I agree that finding a $650 apartment in NYC, share or not, is amazingly lucky and this person should never give up that apartment! I just hate to see all these smug comments of “I have this amazingly cheap wonderful place to live, so why doesn’t everyone do that?” Everyone doesn’t do it because there are hardly any of those places available, and when someone gets one, if they’re smart they never leave!

By: WaityKatie

WaityKatie — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:33:21 +0000

@Mike Dang I agree that traditional “middle class” type struggles, like “I make a bunch of money but half of it still goes to rent and I still can’t save anything” are different/less severe than traditional “working class” type struggles, i.e., “do I buy food or pay this medical bill this month?” However: I would call anyone who essentially lives paycheck to paycheck, and must support him/herself by working for someone else, “working class.” Someone who is a business owner/has inherited money/or for some other reason doesn’t need to work for a living, I would call middle class. Honestly, I consider myself a worker, not a bourgeois. It’s true that my salary is higher than that of most factory workers, but I still feel my interests are more aligned with other workers than with “owners,” not to get too Karl Marx here.

By: angry little raincloud

angry little raincloud — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:02:56 +0000

@Jimmy Kibble But to say, “So no, the rent is not necessarily too damn high” tends to read as an indictment of all the people saying the rent is too high, as in, it is all bad choices or need for lavish lifestyles and doormen and whatever. Elsewhere you admit that you have “an idyllic situation that I basically stumbled into.” That’s luck, fortuitousness, whatever word you’d like to use, but not necessarily something open to every person in NYC making $25K in need of housing.

To be lucky isn’t a bad thing. But it’s good to recognize one’s luck as such.

(And your original post wasn’t necessarily an indictment of others choices, but it is one of those things other people could point to and say, “Look! He lives on $25K just fine in NYC. The rest of you stop your whining.”)

By: Jimmy Kibble

Jimmy Kibble — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:38:14 +0000

@angry little raincloud Hi. Um. Person over here who works too hard for this would like to speak up. Not having student loans has little to do with luck in my case. I went to a college that I could afford, took out minimal loans 5k/yr. paid down the principle while I was in school, and just finished them all a few months ago. I’m lucky to have parents who have me guidance and to have a job. Thanks, though.