Orange County is not luxurious (Long Beach, Santa Ana: cul-de-sac, fit in, sale)

[Humanoid]

A LOT of rich people are perfectly content driving Mercedes Benz, Lexus, or BMWs.

Here you go on with "rich" again. I'm not talking about rich people, I'm talking about the upper-class. And the upper-class does not drive middle-class cars like Lexux, BMW or Mercedes-Benz.

The definition of what makes you wealthy differs from place to place.

When you say "wealth" you are talking about something rather different than when I say "wealth". You are talking about middle-class displays of "wealth", I'm talking about actual wealth which is pretty easy to define:

Assets - Liabilities > few million.

The book also mentions that the number 1 vehicle driven by millionaires is the F-150.

The book is really about "middle-class millionaires", it largely ignores all issues of social class and lacks any sort of real science. Its a decent book on finance though. Rich Dad, Poor Dad is complete junk though.

[lakefrontgirl]

I was born in Long Beach and I can tell you this much, having a home there along the coastline, 650k is like 90k for a little pink house in the midwest. Seriously. On TV they show ONLY the parts that are rich and famous, (why would they make money having you watch the poor and run down areas?).
The home my parents paid 99k for back in 1971 is now a 3mil home. Amazing tho, I still remember it and would love to be in it now. Our backyard was on the beach, a huge deck with steps walking down to the sand. I will say when I left Cali in 2002, I dont know where the places theyre showing on TV are, they claim its OC but its got to be the Malibu coast or elsewhere. No part of OC looks like that! I wish it would have

[missionhome]

Can you explain the difference between a rich person and a upper class person? Last time I checked, if you were worth 400 million, you were rich. Last time I checked, if you were worth 400 million, you were upper class.
Dictionary.com definitions:
Upper class- a class of people above the middle class, having the highest social rank or standing based on wealth, family connections, and the like.
Rich-having wealth or great possessions; abundantly supplied with resources, means, or funds; wealthy
-I though having wealth (being rich) put you in the upper class, but maybe you have to have the family connections also? Please inform and describe the differences to a mother of three.

-You said the upper class doesn't drive a Mercedes Benz, etc... So is Bill Gates not upper class or the other people I mentioned not solely because they don't drive an exotic. Is the upper class determined by what you drive (an exotic) and where you live, or how much wealth you have? The majority of wealthy people may have very exotic cars, but not all.

As far as if inland people want to live like upper class coastal people, well, I'm going to put that behind us because I can't change your opinion and you can't change mine. There is no "evidence" for either of us, rather just our perceptions of an area.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by lakefrontgirl

I was born in Long Beach and I can tell you this much, having a home there along the coastline, 650k is like 90k for a little pink house in the midwest. Seriously. On TV they show ONLY the parts that are rich and famous, (why would they make money having you watch the poor and run down areas?).
The home my parents paid 99k for back in 1971 is now a 3mil home. Amazing tho, I still remember it and would love to be in it now. Our backyard was on the beach, a huge deck with steps walking down to the sand. I will say when I left Cali in 2002, I dont know where the places theyre showing on TV are, they claim its OC but its got to be the Malibu coast or elsewhere. No part of OC looks like that! I wish it would have

I wonder if all that "free advertising" of beaches, bikini chicks, fancy cars, constantly aired on TV and shown in the theaters has any affect on demand to live in Southern California.

[Lake Conroe resident]

Originally Posted by Humanoid

I grew up in the LA area and lived a bit in Orange County (Irvine) and I can't help but laugh at some impression "outsiders" seem to have of the area.

To me the area is just your normal middle-class suburban area of California, but recently its been caste as some sort of upper-class area.

Anybody else get a laugh about this stuff?

Compared to places like Tulsa Oklahoma, Orange County is upper class..

[Humanoid]

Can you explain the difference between a rich person and a upper class person? Last time I checked, if you were worth 400 million, you were rich. Last time I checked, if you were worth 400 million, you were upper class.

Looking in the dictionary isn't going to help you much here, the word "upper-class" is often used as a synonym for "rich" or "wealthy" within the diction used by the middle-class. The differences between the social classes encompass everything though, such as: the way you speak, the way you dress, the cars you drive, how you manage money, how you think about the world in general, your sense of beauty, your sense of right vs wrong etc, how you raise kids etc.

Your social class isn't something you can just change one day as a lot of it comes down to how you were raised. The idea that social class is tied to money is frankly a rather middle-class idea. It suits the middle-class to think this as in general they try to mimic the upper-class. Its not easy to mimic their diction, their taste etc but pretending to be wealthy well that is something they can do.

You said the upper class doesn't drive a Mercedes Benz, etc... So is Bill Gates not upper class or the other people I mentioned not solely because they don't drive an exotic. Is the upper class determined by what you drive (an exotic) and where you live, or how much wealth you have? The majority of wealthy people may have very exotic cars, but not all.

I personally don't know Bill Gates so I can't say, but he was raised middle-class. Upper class circles usually call folks like Bill Gates "nouveau rich" with the idea that although they have wealth they have yet to be refined in the appropriate way. It should be telling that the upper-class have a word used to describe these people because they unlike the middle-class are aware that wealth is just a part of the picture. But the difference between prole ("working class"), middle-class and upper-class can't be determined by any single factor. But there are clear correlations one can point to, such as which cars you own. Also, you have to watch the direction of the implications being bad. The vast majority of upper-class are wealthy, that does not imply the vast majority of wealthy are upper-class. I'm not sure why people always turn a conditional into a biconditional.

[missionhome]

OK, thank you. I think I am done with this. If upper class is based off what cars you drive or what you wear, well that is something I don't even want to get involved in. I think we should make a "Bill Gates Class" for people that have a lot of money and wealth but are pretty laid back and down to earth Cheers

[NaplesRes]

Originally Posted by lakefrontgirl

I was born in Long Beach and I can tell you this much, having a home there along the coastline, 650k is like 90k for a little pink house in the midwest. Seriously. On TV they show ONLY the parts that are rich and famous, (why would they make money having you watch the poor and run down areas?).
The home my parents paid 99k for back in 1971 is now a 3mil home. Amazing tho, I still remember it and would love to be in it now. Our backyard was on the beach, a huge deck with steps walking down to the sand. I will say when I left Cali in 2002, I dont know where the places theyre showing on TV are, they claim its OC but its got to be the Malibu coast or elsewhere. No part of OC looks like that! I wish it would have

Since you are from Long Beach you may find it interesting that the tv show "the oc" is filmed largely in Long Beach. Mostly the Peninsula and Belmont Pier.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by Humanoid

Here you go on with "rich" again. I'm not talking about rich people, I'm talking about the upper-class. And the upper-class does not drive middle-class cars like Lexux, BMW or Mercedes-Benz.

I'm not sure if this book was written only about Orange County but in Fairfield County CT (wealthier than OC) the old money folks with tens of millions+ in the bank drive BMWs, Mercedes, etc. Granted they are the higher end models, but they do have 'em. Sure you see your Range Rovers and Maseratis and Rolls Royces but the vast majority of those upper class folks drive everyday luxury cars. The same can be said for the most affluent sections of Manhattan, Boston, Florida and Chicago.

The thing I like about CT and much of New England is the ultra-wealthy are modest and people here live within their means. Friends of mine who live in Orange County are astounded at the foreclosure rate in OC, which shows that so many people are spending what they don't have.

[101EX]

Originally Posted by Humanoid

Here you go on with "rich" again. I'm not talking about rich people, I'm talking about the upper-class. And the upper-class does not drive middle-class cars like Lexux, BMW or Mercedes-Benz.


When you say "wealth" you are talking about something rather different than when I say "wealth". You are talking about middle-class displays of "wealth", I'm talking about actual wealth which is pretty easy to define:

Assets - Liabilities > few million.


The book is really about "middle-class millionaires", it largely ignores all issues of social class and lacks any sort of real science. Its a decent book on finance though. Rich Dad, Poor Dad is complete junk though.

First of all, Orange County is not luxurious. I live in Newport Beach (for now) and I can't help but grimace over the faux displays of wealth I see on a daily basis.

-High foreclosure rate

-None of the zip codes in Orange County are amongst the highest in the United States, (a la Manhattan, Beverly Hills, Greenwich, Marin County)

-There are 8 billionaires in the entire Orange County; there are more than 8 billionaires living on my parents tiny block in Manhattan.

And it's funny how people in coastal orange county shun and look down on others inland when many inland counties boast more households with higher incomes.

And please don't tell me you're that unenlightened and clueless about the "other half" if you are really under the assumption that "upper class' people don't drive Mercedes-Benz and BMW? I come from what many consider an old money family and my parents both drive Mercedes (let's not forget Mercedes makes a $450,000- $500,000 SLR McLaren roadster and has other top-of-the-line roadsters, sedans and coupes in the $190,000 - $200,000ish range.) In addition to my parents, most of the people their "upper-class" families and social circle also drive Mercedes, Porsche and BMW. Most people who buy (lease) Bentleys and Rolls-Royce Phantoms are NOT Upper-Class and most Upper-Class people do not drive Ferrari's, Bentley's and Rolls-Royce, in fact most of the upper-class people I know look down on the newly-revitalized Bentley marquee and think of it as a wannabes car. Remember, Bentley's arent all that expensive...you can easily lease one in the $2,500 a month range and buy second-hand Bentleys in the low $100,000s (similar to the price of a brand new base Mercedes S-Class model.)

I love the family oriented and more down-to-earth areas like Laguna Hills and Mission Hills but I can't wait to get out of Newport beach and all the "credit-card rich" and the nouveau riche wannabes who think they are suddenly upper-class because of the new-found appraisal values of their over-inflated homes.