Letters to the Editor
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Suffering Rich, Spare Me
To everyone going on about being sad and rich, spare me. Speaking as middle class kid who lacks his parent's wealth but recognizes the other benefits, I can say being even some privilege beats none any day, no matter how troubled you are. Rich and screwed up may suffer, but poor and truamatized end up homeless and dead. So stop with the "money can't buy happiness.
I think before she lays out her feelings, the Letter Writer needs to play the following song:
She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge
she studied sculpture at St Martin's college
that's where I
caught her eye
She told me that her Dad was loaded
I said "In that case I'll have rum and coca-cola."
she said "Fine,"
and then in thirty seconds time she said
"I want to live like common people
I want to do whatever common people do
I want to sleep with common people
I want to sleep with common people like you."
well what else could I do?
I said "I'll see what I can do."
I took her to a supermarket
I don't know why, but I had to start it somewhere
so it started there
I said "Pretend you've got no money."
but she just laughed an said "Oh you're so funny."
I said "Yeah?
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here"
But she didn't understand
she just smiled and held my hand
Rent a flat above a shop
cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
pretend you never went to school
But still you'll never get it right
`cos when you're laid in bed at night
watching roaches climb the wall
if you called your Dad he could stop it all
Yeah
You'll never live like common people
you'll never do whatever common people do
you'll never fail like common people
you'll never watch your life slide out of view
and then dance, and drink, and screw
because there's nothing else to do
Sing along with the common people
sing along and it might just get you through
Laugh along with the common people
laugh along even though they're laughing at you
and the stupid things that you do
because you think that poor is cool
Like a dog lying in a corner
they will bite you and never warn you
Look out
they'll tear your insides out
[something muffled underneath, maybe: I'm sorry,
Mr Dalton, there's no need to be concerned]
`cos everybody hates a tourist
especially one who thinks it's
all such a laugh
yeah and the chip stain's grease will come out in the bath
You will never understand
how it feels to live your life
with no meaning or control
and with nowhere else to go
You are amazed that they exist
and they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why
You'll never live like common people
you'll never do what common people do
you'll never fail like common people
you'll never watch your life slide out of view
and dance, and drink, and screw
because there's nothing else to do
I want to live with common people like you
Aa-aa-ah la la la la...
Oh yeah.
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Strike that; reverse it!
the whole thing is making me angry. do you hate professional athletes because they were born with talents you don't have? Do you hate models because they're more beautiful than you? Life's not fair, but you can't just adopt a policy of hating those that fortune has blessed. that way lies bitterness.
Nope, don't have a problem with any of these people, although it helps that I have advantages of my own. No need to be envious of anyone.
I have a problem with liars and fakes.
Let's turn it around. Let's say the fiance was driving a Porsche, wearing a Rolex and taking the LW out to the best restaurants in town. And let's say that once they're engaged, he reveals that he owns none of this. All of the physical things belong to other people, and the only reason he could afford the meals is because he gets an employee discount.
That's how I see the LW's fiance. Unless he is one of those folks whose parents don't back him short of a life-threatening medical emergency and this is really his standard of living right now, he's putting on the trappings of a life that isn't really his in an attempt to get something he doesn't think he has access to in his own life.
Understandable? Yes. Honorable? No. The kind of guy I'd want any daughter I ever had to marry? Absolutely not.
Every hand life deals has its ups and downs. I can easily believe that it's harder to date when you're rich, but guess what? It's harder to get into Princeton when you're middle-class, and harder to sort out your household expenses when you're poor. Life is hard. That's just how it works.
The LW's life is not going to be made easier by marrying a rich guy. All she's going to do is trade one set of problems for another. This is one thing if the guy is decent and honest at heart, if the money is his much further down the road, when his parents die, but otherwise she's hitching herself to a man who tries to lie his way out of his problems.
I don't care how much money he makes. Such a man does not have the makings of a good husband.
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fiscal responsibility
ha. i frickin' HATE hearing my wealthy fiance and his sister whine about the horrible exotic vacations they took as children.
wait'll you hear a couple members of your fiance's family talk about spending tens of thousands of dollars to remodel perfectly good rooms. that's the good stuff.
however, neither of those were decisions my fiance made about money. his parents decided to take a couple of ingrate children to europe, not him. his mother and sister need new counter tops every twenty minutes, not him. my fiance and yours drive old cars. my fiance would eat store-brand raisin bran twice a day if i didn't make him go to restaurants all the time. he owns two pairs of cheap jeans and one pair of shoes.
that is, even though i'm the one who had to live on one $0.79 burrito a day in college, he's more responsible with money than i am, and that's what matters as you build a life together.