# Is this New York Times article comedy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 5, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-new-york-times-article-comedy/614820 "2012-03-05T15:15:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-new-york-times-article-comedy/614820/41 "2012-03-06T17:57:38Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Wait - if the kids are going to these high-priced private schools, why do they need nannies? 😕 Well, somebody has to go fetch them from school and keep them occupied until bedtime while mom is with the personal trainer. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-new-york-times-article-comedy/614820/42 "2012-03-06T18:03:17Z")
One of my relatives recently took a vacation to the Virgin Islands. When we were together for a family event, she started telling a story about it, and it was clear that she was getting ready to complain, so I stopped her and said, “Fair warning–if you’re about to complain about taking a trip to the Virgin Islands, I’m going to glare at you.” She laughed, and then proceeded to tell me at length how awful it was that her bedroom didn’t have a window, so I glared at her. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-new-york-times-article-comedy/614820/43 "2012-03-06T18:46:40Z")
Median household income in Manhattan tracks pretty close to the national average; under $60,000/yr. $500k/yr puts you well above average, _for Manhattan_. To quote **Anaamika** , “cry me a fucking river.” ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-new-york-times-article-comedy/614820/44 "2012-03-06T18:49:23Z")
> [@Baracus](#): > > Well, somebody has to go fetch them from school and keep them occupied until bedtime while mom is with the personal trainer. When you say “with”, do you mean “banging”? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-new-york-times-article-comedy/614820/45 "2012-03-06T19:35:01Z")
Heh, I’m occasionally guilty of much the same - that is, complaining about the difficulty of living within my means and saving money for retirement etc. when my salary is in the upper-middle class range. Thing is, we hardly live all that high off the hog - we have one car (a Subaru Forester), I ride the subway into work every day, the kid is in public school and I don’t buy fancy clothes and suchlike. We do, however, own a house in a good neighbourhood, and in Toronto that’s a major expense (though it does put us near a good public school …). Also, there is the new computer and other electronic doohickeys that seem important these days. And extra-curricular classes for the kid - skating, skiing, piano, etc. Much of that is stuff I never had myself as a kid. Objectively speaking, there is no problem; I nonetheless fret over such things as saving sufficient money for retirement and for the kid’s university (no pension in the works for me, other than the government social security). I suppose the message is that pretty well everyone frets, no matter how much money they make. Though obviously, everyone earning less is gonna be unsympathetic. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-new-york-times-article-comedy/614820/46 "2012-03-06T21:57:16Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > And then they go on to list an expense of $45,000/year for a nanny. If only one person is working, what they hell do they need a full time nanny for? Does mommy just go to the club all day and play? Now, now, Mommy is shopping and drinking. Actually having to change diapers or be with your child is so declasse. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-new-york-times-article-comedy/614820/47 "2012-03-06T22:10:59Z")
> [@CatherineZeta](#): > > I like this quote from the article: “People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress” > > I guess I don’t. > > (New Yorker who lives in Manhattan on ~$20,000/yr) My favorite is this plaintive lament: > [@](#): > > “I can’t imagine what I’m going to do,” [Marketing Director Andrew] Schiff said. “I’m crammed into 1,200 square feet. I don’t have a dishwasher. We do all our dishes by hand.” By hand. **By hand!** And he doesn’t mean a housekeeper’s hand. He means his own hand, after a long day of slaving away, directing marketing! (You’d think a marketing director might be a little savvier at talking to the press. But what do I know, I wash my own dishes by hand and even kind of like it.) May God have mercy on your soul, Marketing Director Andrew Schiff. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-new-york-times-article-comedy/614820/48 "2012-03-06T22:43:32Z")
I went to school with rich people. Articles like that sum up why I hated most of them. One of my neighbors showed up the day after Obama was elected. She promptly let us know that her biggest concern was that he was going to raise taxes on her husband’s 300k salary. It took every last ounce of restraint I had not to tell her to get off her fat ass and go get a job if she was that worried about it. Nearly four years later she’s still not working and still whining about taxes. She has a master’s degree and all of her children are in school so it’s not as if she has no qualifications or childcare to worry about. Lest you think it is jealousy it really isn’t. My combined household income is easily in the top tenth percentile. Quite frankly we put about half of our income into savings because we really don’t need most of it. And I live in the NJ suburbs. As a native New Yorker I’m also really fucking sick and tired of hearing rich assholes whine about the NYC public schools. My husband and I graduated from the public schools in the city. Neither of us is the drooling moron so many rich Manhattanites like to imply. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-new-york-times-article-comedy/614820.md?page=2)