Don’t get me wrong, I like not worrying about where the next mortgage payment is coming from. I like buying Pelligrino instead of store brand seltzer. I really like buying “expensive” cookies instead of Keebler. In general, I like not worrying about money.
But I miss the sense of not being invested in the current power structure. I miss the clear sighted dry wit.
I come from a long line of poor and smart and / or tough people. They did not trust those with power. They had a crisp and honest suspicion. They were the people who knew why unions were necessary.
I am well educated and well compensated and frugal and invested, and have every reason to support our current economic / political / fiscal system.
But every now and then, I chat with my cousins, and I miss the clarity of vision of the uninvested.
I don’t miss being poor. I do, however, miss being underemployed. After about 2 weeks of vacation I start to feel really good, just in time for me to go back to work again : oldrolleyes:
I don’t have to. I just have to check my social media by my wireless connection to see what my various equally educated, successful, and dubious relatives are up to.
Seriously, is there anyone else out there who misses their blue collar upbringing? From back when there was an actual blue collar lifestyle?
Of course, it’s all relative. Not sure what your income is, but for me, poor was the $15k-$22k/yr range of income (roughly), and I don’t miss it at all. At least once per year I was skirting having one of the utilities shut off. No travel, no money to spend on “toys,” and even dining out would often be fraught with guilt, as I’d be thinking about where else that money ought to go.
I’m now in the $25-$29k range, and life is amazing. I had expensive car repairs this past summer that I was able to pay for. I’m contemplating a vacation overseas next winter. I don’t have to check my bank account before paying rent/utilities. I’m putting money away for a potential future large purchase (car, down payment, etc).
I don’t miss it because I’m living it. I work long hours and go home dirty, sweaty and sore. I’m a proud union member and have been for nearly 20 years now. My life totally fucking rocks.
I’ve always lived the blue collar life, but I miss being poor, too, when me and all my friends were poor in the 70’s/80’s it was just one great long party in somebody’s cheap old rent house with drinking drugs and sex and none of this crappy old responsibility bullshit that is often neck deep and tough to wade around in…
Dumpster dive for aluminum and other things you can pawn. Make it a habit everyday to take the money you receive and give it to bus boys who work at really nice restaurants. In exchange, they agree to leave you tasty scraps at the back door alley that patrons leave on their plates. After one month, reconsider being “poor”.
No, where you get that? We could never afford shortsightedness or irresponsibility. Every decision other than whether to bluff at penny-ante poker was carefully weighed, because it meant the difference between potatoes or ground beef.
But we could always afford a nice healthy skepticism.
And “mo’ money, mo’ problems”? Not in my world. The money is very welcome; it’s the emotional investment in the current economic structure that is wearisome.
The current economic structure is just as stacked against me as the most of us, but I’m one of the relatively few doing relatively well. So, I’m invested, but I know I’m not vested.
But this isn’t serious angst. I just miss … the perspective. Skepticism. Honest evaluation of the socio-political and economic realities.
Of knowing I will never be one of the truly Fortunate, so there is no reason to play the game … I don’t know.
I think I get it. The OP is pining for his lost youth. The “good ol’ days” of roommates and struggling to make the rent and beer busts every weekend and a new girlfriend every other week. I have fond memories along those lines myself.
But no, I don’t really miss them and would never return to those days. Those days are fond only because they’re memories.
