# I miss being "poor". **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 24, 2014, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822 "2014-04-24T00:29:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/41 "2014-04-24T12:44:46Z")
> [@j666](#): > > Seriously, is there anyone else out there who misses their blue collar upbringing? From back when there was an actual blue collar lifestyle? I didn’t have a blue-collar upbringing (my wife can check that box, though), but I did have a blue-collar income up into my mid-40s, even when I wasn’t in grad school. 20 years ago, as a recent Ph.D. teaching math at the only college that I got a job offer from, I was earning $23K/year. Four years later, at the same college, I was making the princely sum of $26,800. Sometimes I could pick up another $1000 by teaching a summer class. And I didn’t even get a cushy life out of the deal: I had a really crushing teaching load. My wife was making about the same money, teaching for a local community college, and an equally overwhelming teaching load. So it was the white-collar equivalent of a blue-collar life. I don’t miss it one bit. But I still remember what it was like. And it informs my politics to this day. I’m living quite comfortably now, but I’m aware that most people are struggling in ways that I’m not, and it’s not because they’re lazy. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/42 "2014-04-24T13:07:05Z")
They say money can’t buy happiness. But money can buy a lot of toys and other distractions to make you forget how miserable you are. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/43 "2014-04-24T13:13:58Z")
Rats, in this tax bracket I can’t hang my siblings with the excuse “done because we are too menny.” ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/44 "2014-04-24T14:23:03Z")
Waah. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/45 "2014-04-24T14:27:27Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > They say money can’t buy happiness. But money can buy a lot of toys and other distractions to make you forget how miserable you are. The below [Daniel Tosh joke](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RoLdkgjKhs) is appropriate… > [@](#): > > “Money doesn’t buy happiness.” Uh, do you live in America? 'Cause it buys a WaveRunner. Have you ever seen a sad person on a WaveRunner? Have you? Seriously, have you? Try to frown on a WaveRunner. You can’t! They’re so awesome, it’s just throttle. People smile as they hit the pier. Because you forget, you need gas to turn. It goes against your natural instincts. Some of you aren’t laughing; we all miss your cousin, but not laughing’s not gonna bring him back. He’s dead for a reason. He was a show-off, and he tried to spray us. “I didn’t wanna get wet!” I yelled at his mother at the funeral. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/46 "2014-04-24T14:47:10Z")
I’ll agree that having money in a family of poor people sucks because they all start sticking their hands out. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/47 "2014-04-24T15:17:06Z")
I’ll trade places with you. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/48 "2014-04-24T15:27:26Z")
> [@j666](#): > > …I miss the clarity of vision of the uninvested. I’ve found that such clarity can be hard to differentiate from, say, nothin’ I can’t see is important. Good to have a few people around - maybe even a whole class - that can see farther than the next holler. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/49 "2014-04-24T15:40:25Z")
**J666** , I understand exactly what you are saying, (or at least I think I share a lot of your viewpoint). I too grew up in the blue-collar union labor world and am now in professional/managerial 3%. While I did not think of my family as poor at the time, because everyone we knew was in the same place it just seemed “normal”. It was only later in life that I came to understand where we had fit in the big picture. Yes, we operated in the world with a keen sensitivity to day-to-day choices based on money availability. And we had a distinct sense of “us” (working class) against “them” (owner class). Now that I am technically in the owner class, it is a club I am not terribly fond of. It’s one thing to sit on the outside thinking they are all full of sh_t, it’s quite another to be there and understand that yeah, they are kinda full of sh_t - and in ways you could never imagine. There was a certain innocence to being blue collar and seeing it more simply. Part of it, of course, for people like you and me is personal identity. We naturally identify with our upbringing (it can’t be helped) and don’t 100% identify with our current situation, no matter how many decades we spend being better off. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_North](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@Richard\_North](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_North)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/50 "2014-04-24T15:40:31Z")
I don’t know why anyone would like to be poor. It is a really powerless feeling. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/51 "2014-04-24T15:41:33Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > You’re confusing being poor with being young. That’s what I got from the OP. When I was young I had very little money. I never considered myself poor, just a little poorer than most. Only a few days of my life were spent hungry from little money for food. Getting by was challenging, scary, painful but it also had a lot of discovery and excitement. I entertained myself in simpler ways. At that time the future looked scary but the present was an adventure. So I can see how the OP might equate his loss of adventure to increased wealth instead of increased age. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/52 "2014-04-24T15:45:17Z")
\*"… So every now and then when I’m in the grocery I’ll take a little but not much 'cause you never know when those hard times’ll hitcha And I don’t want to lose my touch…" \* -Jimmy Buffett ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/53 "2014-04-24T15:52:02Z")
I enjoyed my salad days, but that was then and at this time in my life i wouldn’t want to go back to them. I wouldn’t be happy about it but I could and would survive, however. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/54 "2014-04-24T16:11:53Z")
There are a few things that were simpler in life when I had less money. But if I never again have to set foot in a payday loan place, or come home to a three-day notice from the power company hanging on my door knob, I suspect I won’t shed a tear. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/55 "2014-04-24T16:17:15Z")
> [@j666](#): > > 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. That’s why things are the way they are: because the people with power to change things have an incentive to keep them the way they are. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/56 "2014-04-24T17:09:41Z")
> [@j666](#): > > 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 am mourning the blue collar. > > Or maybe just my mother. You are one of the truly fortunate. You are living in the richest part of the world in the best time to be alive. There are six billion people living in the world right now who would give their right arm to have half of what you have. 99.9% of the people who ever existed lived and died without dreaming of having what you do. You are among the .1% of the luckiest people in the history of the world. Quit whining, there is nothing ennobling about poverty and nothing wise about wanting to go back to when you knew less about the world. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/57 "2014-04-24T17:12:30Z")
The First World complaint department is down the hall on the right. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/58 "2014-04-24T17:15:34Z")
> [@randompattern](#): > > Same here, I’m still poor, oh the fun I’m having! I meant about being born an arrogant asshole. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/59 "2014-04-24T17:16:26Z")
The only thing I miss is the freedom of having no debt, so I could get up and go or do anything I could afford, without worrying about future bills coming due. When you don’t own much and don’t owe anything, going broke isn’t very scary. On the other hand, I’ve always felt that I could get employment if I needed it. Going broke without any hope of any income or means of support would be truly scary! ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822/60 "2014-04-24T17:21:22Z")
When The Man who is The Man sticks it to The Man, well, that’s just social masturbation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-being-poor/686822.md?page=4)