Reply #11: I guess you don't travel much... [View All]

[ConservativeDemocrat]

...or else you'd know that even "poor" Americans are actually rich.

The problem with "rich", "poor", and "middle class" is that people see them as relative. Live with a mere $250,000 a year next to people who all have $10+ million a year income, and pretty soon you can convince yourself you're just scraping by. On the contrary, the village elder who has more than everyone else around him, is considered "rich" no matter how meager his possessions from an American perspective.

As one african child rather poignantly put it, "I want to go to America, where the poor people are FAT". Depending on where you live, you can get pretty fat on $18,000 a year. What you can't get is status, bragging rights for conspicuous consumption, which is the human species' way of determining fitness for procreation. Nobody wants a "loser".

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community