How wealthy was your upbringing? How has it affected you?

In My Humble Opinion
61

Middle class.

My Dad died young, but his best friend was able to salvage his small business and basically kept paying my Dad’s paycheck to my now-widowed Mom. Mom stayed at home with us, and although initially she planned to return to work, the money situation did not DEMAND it and my brother and I were pretty distraught about losing our Dad and were kind of clingy & needy of Mom, and eventually things kind of settled into an even keel with Mom making things work with what we had.

We lived in a fairly affluent suburb, Mom stretched the family budget to allow my brother and I to attend private school until we were middle-school aged. We had piano lessons, were involved in Boy Scouts & Girl Scouts, and any number of other “activities” over the years - karate, swim lessons, summer camps… that in retrospect, I suppose my mom forked over a lot of her spare cash for. She didn’t spend much on herself, and even when she did “splurge” and buy something nice, it was generally something for all of us to enjoy. (A new stereo, or a new gaming console, that sort of thing, would appear maybe once a year as a treat). We ate mainly at home - Mom was a good cook, and made balanced meals for all of us 5+ nights a week.

Our house was nice, about average for the neighborhood, 3000 square feet, everyone had their own bedroom. Mom had an atrocious high-interest mortgage on the place (the early 80s S&L scandal) and wasn’t allowed to refinance due to the deed being caught up in my dad’s estate. So she really didn’t get a good return-on-investment with equity, but she did make efforts to keep the house updated & in good condition to retain what value it had. When I was a teenager, my mom had a swimming pool dug in the backyard. We had a new car every 4-6 years on average.

There wasn’t a lot of savings, though, and when college time rolled around, my brother and I wound up trying to get started accumulating credits at the local junior college while working part-time jobs. Neither of us ever wound up finishing college, except for 2-year degrees. (Neither of our parents had more than 2-year degrees, either, interestingly) But we both managed to find our ways to solidly middle-class by our late 20s-early 30s anyway.

My husband and I own a small business, and I stay home and take care of our three (about to be four) small kids. Our house is larger (but not as nice, much more to the tract-housing end of things) than the one I grew up in. We’ve got 2 late-model cars, have started funding college funds for our kids. (Although I’m not sure it’ll be possible to give them all a four-year-free-ride like we would LIKE to, at least we’ll be able to help.) We own a rental house. Don’t have lots of debt.

62

I’m an immigrant (came to the U.S. when I was 7), so my family’s socio-economic status varied over time. When we came to the U.S., we were poor, but had a small nest egg saved up. This quickly dried up and we had some hard times, though we always had food on the table. But my parents quickly got middle-class jobs and, with a few hiccups, we generally moved up.

That was 16 years ago. Today, we’d be considered upper-middle class by most measures. Though we certainly don’t live lavishly, we are financially comfortable.

I would say that I was more affected by my social situation than the status of my family, since the public schools I attended were generally working to middle class, and there was little stratification along class lines (though it certainly existed along ethnic boundaries). I was shy by nature, and that made it difficult for me to make friends. So, I tend to sympathize with underdogs and outsiders.

Interestingly, though I’ve been interested in politics since I was a high school sophomore, and my political views changed over time, I did not arrive at my current perspective until *after *I had graduated college. As much as I’m an academic at heart, my professors did little to influence my political development.

63

Middle Class - Dad a mechanic, mom in retail. Went to college on scholarship, but could have gotten a loan instead. Wouldn’t say it’s affected me much. I’ve never been attached to things. I prefer books and other ephemeral delights that don’t cost much money.

64

That’s about my story, except mine was an internist and we did live in a big city. My dad was an internist, though in our case in a big city, and we lived comfortably if not lavishly. As my brother and I got to driving age, the old cars weren’t traded in but made available to us. We were fortunate enough to go on a couple of school trips to Europe, but I’ve always regretted that we never did that as a family. I was recently thinking about some of my schoolmates who went on those trips; their parents (mostly fathers, back then) had various types of professions–lawyer, accountant, doctor, engineer, and so on, and they lived up in the canyons above West L.A., or in the more modest residential tracts of Westwood and environs. And I doubt that most of them even dream of ever living in the neighborhoods where they grew up.

65

Ach! Don’t say that! Blahblahblahblah. It’s not lost that much value! I’m down, but not out.

Like you said and I implied, a modest-sized house. Where do the middle-class live? Surely they don’t all take sub-prime mortgages? (And, but Michigan standards, SE Michigan is expensive. I wish I could earn what I earn in western Michigan; a $200- to $300,00 house there would be a palace).