Describe stuck-up, materialistic and snobbish... (Dallas, Plano: apartment complex, houses, income)

[socketz]

Sachse is a "Mexican ghetto" ??????

Interesting. I'd say it's uneventful, rural and off the beaten path, but I find it off someone referred to it as a ghetto.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by jfre81

aceplace - you assume that people speak out only about things they want and can't have. The HOAs, the vinyl siding and mallrat kids are for other people - not me. I have no use for the suburbs. I can eat at a Chili's and shop at a Wal-Mart and not know whether I'm in Texas or Florida or Ohio or wherever. It doesn't matter. jenlion seems to have the right idea - people spend so much to have what everyone else has, when the only reason to is to not be considered inferior.

It's amazing. Clear out the trees, name the roads after trees, have them loop around each other in a continuous chain of mass-produced homes and lots. It's not hard to see how in a homogeneous environment like that you want to flaunt any little thing you can get over your neighbors. It's the grown-up form of having the coolest toys of any kid on the block.

"I've got a Hummer in my garage and the $120 it takes to fill up its tank, neener neener neener."

In the Soviet system, it was also determined how much you had and it was just like everyone else. You can draw some interesting parallels.

Several years ago, there was a picture book in the shops about people's consumption habits. Called "The Material World", it had a section for one family from each of many countries in the world. The trick was that the family would take their posessions out of their house and place them on the ground, in order to show the photograph what they had. The underlying message... people everywhere liked having a nice material existence, wanted a better one, and made their lives as comfortable as possible by amassing as much as they could. This is a universal part of human nature, not just an alleged moral failure of a particular city.

Well, not everybody is into consumption. An obvious example is Ebenezer Scrooge. Was his life spent in wasteful self-indulgence? In a race to gather posessions? No. He certainly lived below his means, which should endear him to those who criticize others for being "materialistic".

Re the Soviet example... Nikita Kruschev in his autobiography denies the principle that in the world pf pure Communism on earth, everyone would have the same standard of living. The writer David K Willis wrote a book called Klass that describes well how the social class (and consumption) system in the old Soviet Union actually did function.

[dgz]

I agree with what you're saying. But in the context in which I brought up the incident of the contractor friend in the earlier posting... If a woman came up to you in a bar and asked you what you did, then it might sound like she's looking for things in common. But if she then asked, 'what kind of car do you drive?' do you think she's asking that still to find out what you have in common or to guess how much you can afford. What if her third question was, 'Do you lease it or is it paid off?' This is the line of questioning that this contractor said he got on a regular basis. I agree that the first two questions, one might be just making conversation, but the third one seems to take the conversation off into another direction.

Originally Posted by socketz

I ask because I'm fascinated by peoples' work. It's just interesting to me. I ask about cars because you can tell whether you can take the conversation to the next step based on their response...if they have a 77 dodge minivan, then branching off into a conversation about a GT500 Mustang may be futal....but if they have a nice car, most likely they'll be current on what's the latest and greatest in the Auto world. Name dropping is another thing that's common "hey, do you know so and so"....all of these are conversation starters.

[dgz]

Originally Posted by socketz

I ask because I'm fascinated by peoples' work. It's just interesting to me. I ask about cars because you can tell whether you can take the conversation to the next step based on their response...if they have a 77 dodge minivan, then branching off into a conversation about a GT500 Mustang may be futal....but if they have a nice car, most likely they'll be current on what's the latest and greatest in the Auto world. Name dropping is another thing that's common "hey, do you know so and so"....all of these are conversation starters.

I agree with what you're saying. But in the context in which I brought up the incident of the contractor friend in the earlier posting... If a woman came up to you in a bar and asked you what you did, then it might sound like she's looking for things in common. But if she then asked, 'what kind of car do you drive?' do you think she's asking that still to find out what you have in common? What if her third question was, 'Do you lease it or is it paid off?' This is the line of questioning that this contractor said he got on a regular basis. I agree that the first two questions, one might be just making conversation, but the third one seems to take the conversation off into another direction.

[socketz]

I guess alot of it has to do with the context in which the questions are asked.

I think this type of questioning is pretty typical anywhere once your context is the bar scene. Guys know this, hence why they lie alot when asked these questions.

[Phil75230]

Originally Posted by kt2le

IMO, it's crass to talk about money. Usually people that are most concerned with it have the least - and feel like they have something to prove by showing off in some fashion, either with material possessions they want to make sure you see or by putting others down for not having something. Usually those who don't flaunt material possessions or have affected attitudes regarding "things" are many times more likely to be able to afford the very things "show-offs" are bragging about.

A good book is The Millionaire Next Door, which talks about this very thing. Odds are, the nondescript man down the street driving the 5 year old Chevy is wealthier than the showboat whizzing around in a BMW. Don't let appearances fool you. You see a lot of this around Dallas, though - and other cities, too, I'm sure.

We've had discussions similar to this with our teenagers. They think that a person driving an expensive car must be rich. We tell them that that's not necessarily true for it may just be a person who could get a car loan.

* The truly materialistic, snobbish, etc. (If over 25 yrs old) are little more than overgrown teenagers.

* Celebrity (even of a small crowd/clique) is just the blind, mindless, cultlike worship of imagery over content.

* Mark Twain said "We westerners tend to think of people in India as intolerably destitute. But in matters of the spirit, it is WE who are the paupers and THEY who are the millionaires"

Yes, I do perceive that Dallas has more than its fair share of materialists, snobs, etc. On the other hand, Dallas has the advantage of being a big city - easy to find people or sections of town that are NOT like that if you just make a little effort to look.

[Panks]

Originally Posted by Phil75230

* * Mark Twain said "We westerners tend to think of people in India as intolerably destitute. But in matters of the spirit, it is WE who are the paupers and THEY who are the millionaires".

Not that I am a big fan of snobs, but Mark Twain could have hardly chosen a worse culture to compare the West to, than India.

India has a caste system where the lowest people are called the 'untouchables". They are born into the caste and can never change it. They can only marry within their caste and can only have jobs like sweeping the streets or cleaning toilets. No person in the US has ever been treated like that since the abolition of slavery.

In India, young brides are burned to death with kerosene every single day by their husbands for fighting with their mothers-in-law (who live with them) or so that the guy can marry again and get another dowry.

How about the practice of Suttee where the widow is expected to jump onto her husband's funeral pyre to be cremated ALIVE with him. Quite the spiritual millionaires.

I could go on and on but frankly, it makes me really angry, so I'd rather not.

As a naturalized U.S citizen, I can tell you that America has a lot to be proud of, in fact more than most countries on the planet and I thank God every day that I get to live here.

[socketz]

Originally Posted by Panks

As a naturalized U.S citizen, I can tell you that America has a lot to be proud of, in fact more than most countries on the planet and I thank God every day that I get to live here.

I work with dozens of highly educated indians and asians that feel the same way.

While I'm a natural born citizen, I have spent alot of time overseas and have to agree that there is not a better place on earth to live. The opportunities here are endless. What's sad is that fewer and fewer americans think this way.

[KewGee]

Mark Twain died 97 years ago and said what he said over 100 years ago. I am not much of a history buff, but whatever was going on in either place over 100 years ago, I'm sure he had good reason to say what he did.

I like his quote and in many ways, he is right. Again, I don't know about India and possibly he should have used another country or ?? with which to compare, but the intent of his quote makes sense to me.

Yes, I agree, American should be admired.

[galore]

"What's sad is that fewer and fewer americans think this way"

Really? I have yet to meet a single US citizen who does not think this way.

Sure, there is some critizism (as there should be in order to advance as a society) but after all is said and done, every US citizen (even the ones who are getting a raw deal in these ideologically charged, divisive times) that I know loves the USA.