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I partially agree. Money does not "buy" happiness. There are both happy and sad rich and poor people. There's no guarantee that if someone makes more that they are instantly less happy.
I'll be honest: I spent YEARS being bitter in the Bay Area. Bitter because I was envious of those around me who made higher incomes, bought houses, and so on. To me all of those people were merely spoiled rotten. Its easy to get that way and I'll admit that I haven't totally kicked that habit. I am still bitter in some ways over the obvious displays of extreme wealth because its very out in the open and prevalent here. If you're someone like me who came from a rather poor part of the country where a nice car was say- a new Ford Taurus and then come to a place like the Bay Area where you'll possibly see a couple of Ferraris on a weekly basis not to mention hordes and hordes of BMW's, Mercedes, and now Teslas its a big shock. Its like- where did all of that money come from?How is that possible? Then after awhile it fits the financial narrative of places like the Bay Area: Its an expensive place and a favorite location for the monied classes and hence why you see this seemingly overwhelming preponderance of wealth.
You know, this is a very interesting point. You are definitely right - the amount of wealth on display here is absolutely extreme. As someone living near Pac Heights, its constantly in my face and the sheer volume of it is hard to comprehend sometimes. How you handle seeing wealth like that regularly will probably have a big impact on your happiness living in the Bay Area. Seriously.
Here's the litmus test: Do you see someone in a $20M house and think "that filthy greedy pig!", or do you think "good for them, I hope to be successful like that someday"?
Because honestly, in San Francisco, for the common man, like just about everyone posting on this forum (including myself) - you are going to come face to face with several people making FAR more than you do on a daily basis. If you have feelings of resentment towards those people, this is not the place for you - because displays of riches are unavoidable here and you are just gonna end up bitter all the time.
...and I'm pretty sure that you'll find displays of wealth in every single nice neighborhood in every single state (and in most countries, too). Wealth is not something that only happens in the Bay Area.
Here's the litmus test: Do you see someone in a $20M house and think "that filthy greedy pig!", or do you think "good for them, I hope to be successful like that someday"?
I'd say many people would have a fairly guttural reaction to seeing something like that. For example the East Bay neighborhood I live in has a nicer part of town and there's one section where the houses are simply ENORMOUS, as in 2 and 3 story, 7,000-8,000 Sq foot monsters. All cream of the crop Victorian era homes. Parked out front is the obligatory Bimmer, Luxury SUV, or some sort of sports car. My usual reaction is a bit of awe. Like I said, I do fairly well, but the house I bought is a typical middle class house anywhere else in the country and it was like half a million dollars. So when I see something like this it usually flashes through my head: Crap. They must make a TON of money! How can they afford that!" I think its basic human instinct to covet what you don't have. Even those of us who makes claims we don't.
But you know what's interesting? I happen to have a number of friends who are literally millionaires many times over. What's interesting is that these guys seriously drive around in older Honda Accords and very pedestrian cars and own outright ordinary houses. I have a lot of respect for someone like that where even though they have been successful choose to be successful in other ways that doesn't depend on buying a whole lot of fancy stuff.
Here's the litmus test: Do you see someone in a $20M house and think "that filthy greedy pig!", or do you think "good for them, I hope to be successful like that someday"?
I say, "Damn, I'm glad I don't have to pay for the upkeep on that thing."
Especially for the army of workers necessary to do so.
...and I'm pretty sure that you'll find displays of wealth in every single nice neighborhood in every single state (and in most countries, too). Wealth is not something that only happens in the Bay Area.
It sounds to me as though you may have grown up in the bay area and regard this as normal. To those of us coming from most other parts of the world the incredible degree of wealth in the bay area and the degree to which it is flaunted is shocking. Most metropolitan areas have nothing that is equivalent to Pac Heights or Marin. It took me several years to get used to it after having spent most of my life in the south and the northwest. In my daily commute, it is quite typical to look around and see several luxury cars around me. Where I grew up, seeing a Mercedes pass by was cause for someone to turn their head and say "Damn! Mercedes!", and wonder who might be driving in it. In most cities there are a very small number of very fine restaurants, typically places where the well to do might go for an anniversary. Here, there are streets lined with restaurants that most of the nation's populace has no chance of affording to eat at once. Many of the people eating at them are twenty year olds who just stopped in casually on a Tuesday because they were bored. The sheer number of rich people here is overwhelming when you first arrive here. Most people I know who moved here from working class backgrounds have had the same reaction: "How can there be so many of them?, Where is all this money coming from?" The few wealthy people I know outside of the bay area are very aware that they are of a privileged class. The wealthy people I know in the bay area do not appear to have any understanding of their privilege, perhaps because many neighborhoods in SF are homogenously upper class.
Incidentally, I think this has led to a highly visible group of people who feel that the upper class San Francisco lifestyle has been a choice they made rather than just being the standard trappings of wealth. This comes across as very distasteful in most of the country and is probably the greatest reason that when right wing politicians want to lash working class southerners into a fervor, they often conjure images of San Francisco.
It sounds to me as though you may have grown up in the bay area and regard this as normal. To those of us coming from most other parts of the world the incredible degree of wealth in the bay area and the degree to which it is flaunted is shocking. Most metropolitan areas have nothing that is equivalent to Pac Heights or Marin. It took me several years to get used to it after having spent most of my life in the south and the northwest. In my daily commute, it is quite typical to look around and see several luxury cars around me. Where I grew up, seeing a Mercedes pass by was cause for someone to turn their head and say "Damn! Mercedes!", and wonder who might be driving in it.
Actually, I think the bling factor or ostentatious show of wealth is more pronounced in the Los Angeles/Orange County region than in the SF Bay Area.
It sounds to me as though you may have grown up in the bay area and regard this as normal. To those of us coming from most other parts of the world the incredible degree of wealth in the bay area and the degree to which it is flaunted is shocking. Most metropolitan areas have nothing that is equivalent to Pac Heights or Marin. It took me several years to get used to it after having spent most of my life in the south and the northwest. In my daily commute, it is quite typical to look around and see several luxury cars around me. Where I grew up, seeing a Mercedes pass by was cause for someone to turn their head and say "Damn! Mercedes!", and wonder who might be driving in it. In most cities there are a very small number of very fine restaurants, typically places where the well to do might go for an anniversary. Here, there are streets lined with restaurants that most of the nation's populace has no chance of affording to eat at once. Many of the people eating at them are twenty year olds who just stopped in casually on a Tuesday because they were bored. The sheer number of rich people here is overwhelming when you first arrive here. Most people I know who moved here from working class backgrounds have had the same reaction: "How can there be so many of them?, Where is all this money coming from?" The few wealthy people I know outside of the bay area are very aware that they are of a privileged class. The wealthy people I know in the bay area do not appear to have any understanding of their privilege, perhaps because many neighborhoods in SF are homogenously upper class.
Incidentally, I think this has led to a highly visible group of people who feel that the upper class San Francisco lifestyle has been a choice they made rather than just being the standard trappings of wealth. This comes across as very distasteful in most of the country and is probably the greatest reason that when right wing politicians want to lash working class southerners into a fervor, they often conjure images of San Francisco.
The poverty here is also astounding....
Agree 100%! The falunting of wealth and snobbery is obscene here and so is the miserable living condition of the middle class. People define here by what they eat, how expensive their house is, the type of car they drive...
Location: Baghdad by the Bay (San Francisco, California)
3,530 posts, read 5,136,325 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WF76
It sounds to me as though you may have grown up in the bay area and regard this as normal. To those of us coming from most other parts of the world the incredible degree of wealth in the bay area and the degree to which it is flaunted is shocking. Most metropolitan areas have nothing that is equivalent to Pac Heights or Marin. It took me several years to get used to it after having spent most of my life in the south and the northwest. In my daily commute, it is quite typical to look around and see several luxury cars around me. Where I grew up, seeing a Mercedes pass by was cause for someone to turn their head and say "Damn! Mercedes!", and wonder who might be driving in it. In most cities there are a very small number of very fine restaurants, typically places where the well to do might go for an anniversary. Here, there are streets lined with restaurants that most of the nation's populace has no chance of affording to eat at once. Many of the people eating at them are twenty year olds who just stopped in casually on a Tuesday because they were bored. The sheer number of rich people here is overwhelming when you first arrive here. Most people I know who moved here from working class backgrounds have had the same reaction: "How can there be so many of them?, Where is all this money coming from?" The few wealthy people I know outside of the bay area are very aware that they are of a privileged class. The wealthy people I know in the bay area do not appear to have any understanding of their privilege, perhaps because many neighborhoods in SF are homogenously upper class.
Incidentally, I think this has led to a highly visible group of people who feel that the upper class San Francisco lifestyle has been a choice they made rather than just being the standard trappings of wealth. This comes across as very distasteful in most of the country and is probably the greatest reason that when right wing politicians want to lash working class southerners into a fervor, they often conjure images of San Francisco.
The poverty here is also astounding....
Please explain how someone from the South who sees me eating my dinner in a restaurant on a Tuesday as distasteful is a failing of San Francisco.
Actually, I think the bling factor or ostentatious show of wealth is more pronounced in the Los Angeles/Orange County region than in the SF Bay Area.
Wrong! LA has huge working class and is still the kind of city where a penniless immigrant can come and live the American dream. SF is the disneyland for the rich!
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