When did becoming 'well off' mean becoming grim?

I remember when I was a kid, I’d go see different friends and meet different people who were doing well financially and the parents looked pleasant, Happy and ‘normal.’ Talking with them was fun, the women looked womanly, the men looked kind. There were the exceptions, but they were few.

One day, as an adult, I turned around and noticed a big change in people. Those who are doing well now have this ‘look’ that I do not like. Their facial expressions are all the same – grim, solemn, businesslike. The men all seem to get this styled hair, they don’t look jolly anymore and they seem to have this cut throat attitude one used to see in big bankers of years ago. Their eyes tend to be serious and cold as if looking at you to determine if you are going to try to screw them in a bad business deal, slap them with a lawsuit, or seeing if you are impressed with their ‘business savvy.’

I call the look their ‘business face.’

The women are the same, only they act much less womanly, seem much harder and tend to wear expensive, casual clothing, have short hair and power suits and act like you are an employee of theirs instead of a friend. The impression I get is that they have money and you had better acknowledge that they are hardened business people and better watch out. In talking with such people, they tend to not be very sympathetic or tolerant of people who are in a lower economic factor, like years ago.

Most of these people tend to talk in absolutes, like there is no alternate to their opinions or decisions and they seem to be much more businesslike and possession oriented. I’ve seen older women out weeding their flower gardens in steel rimmed glasses, styled short hair, expensive gardening clothing, and instead of the ‘grandmotherly’ attitude when I talk to them, I get the ‘older executive’ impression.

Am I just the only one who has observed this? I started spotting it when the age of the yuppies began but now, it seems all over. Even the old grandfather-like guys I used to spot tooling around in older, well kept cars are now wearing what I like to think of as ‘political hair’ (you know that over puffed, over combed look) and the looks on their faces do not encourage kids to sit by them and listen to stories of the ‘good old days’ but impress one that they would feel more comfortable talking about stocks and bonds and firing employees and saying things like ‘if he won’t do the job, fire his ass and get someone who will for less money’.

For the older, portly men, gone are the button down shirts, with sleeves rolled up, the loose tie, even suspenders and the relaxed look. Now they wear pull over golf shirts, Gucci pants, trainers, steel rimmed executive glasses (those used to be seen mainly on doctors), and they always look like they are spoiling for a fight.

Is it just me? I don’t think so.


What? Me worry?’

Jesus, Rainbow, where the hell do you live? What kind of work do you do?

There are assholes now, but there have always been assholes and there will always be assholes. I don’t think that the asshole population relative to the population as a whole is growing at the rate you fear.

Here in New York City there are hundreds of thousands of Burly Businessmen and Sour-faced Beancounters of both sexes…also lots of Bohemians, Beatniks, Artists, Punks, Eccentrics, Jazzbos, Enthusiasts, and General Loonies.

I think you better get out and mix it up with the hippies, before you lose all faith in the human race.


Uke

Overfocused! Gaaahhh!

Must…change…perspective…


VB

Remember, you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish!

Well, first off - you can’t really go by what you remember as a kid because people treat children differently, and people have very poor memories of their childhood. I think now what you are seeing is the ‘blue buick syndrome’ - buy a new blue buick and all of a sudden you see them everywhere. For some reason you’ve become slightly obsessed with this idea and now you see confirmation everywhere…I assure you the world does not look like you describe.

I see the same as you, and it’s just as you say. But our society worships wealth, consumerism is the cornerstone of capitalism, after all. We also worship at the temple of science, which would have us deny any spiritual aspect in the human animal. People who insist on a spiritual journey are viewed as weak, or simple. I would encourage you to spirit yourself away to a more rural and pastoral environment for a day or more. You will feel restore, I feel certain. You’re right to think there is a lesson in those faces though, I believe.

Banana oil.

I have personally achieved Buddha Nature right here in the middle of the World’s Greatest City.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must get back to work…there’s some widows and orphans I need to grind under my heels.


Uke

Rainbowcsr
Not sure when you were a kid, but here’s what I think happened.

Up into the 70s, business was done a little differently. It was dominated by career managers who kept things running. There weren’t many computers, so paperwork had to be done – that’s why banks always closed at 3:00, so they could count the receipts and reconcile the books for the next day. People worked hard, but it was a more meaured pace.

The inflation of the late 70s and early 80s, combined with the growth of computers made those professional mangers an unnecessary expense and they got kicked out. Everyone had to take care of the “paperwork” by themselves – and even with computers, there’s still a lot of paperwork.

The priority of business shifted from operating smoothly and making a buck to maximizing income. Everyone was asked to justify their existence in the organization.

At the same time more women entered the workforce. Suddenly the family unit had less collective time to take care of the necessary tasks. That left less time to unwind.

No wonder these successful people don’t seem as content as they used to be. They’re stressed out and they don’t feel any assurance that good performance today means anything tomorrow.

This sort of rhetoric belongs in MPSIMS.

Nickrz