Why do people from Pittsburgh care so much about money? (Lebanon: neighborhoods, buy)

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by charisb

Why do human beings the world over often seem to care a lot about money?
Sorry, OP, this is a very silly thread. Cleveland is a cool city, but I am sure there are plenty of people there who care a lot about money.

<P.S. Gortonator, is your algorithm real? >

gort's just taking over for 'burgh supercop Ben Klingston. Ben was top of the line in his day.

People in all areas care about money.

[Copanut]

Everything is double good.

[bluecarebear]

I have only seen the change within the last 4 years. Before that, nobody cared about how much you made or where you lived. Now with the revitalization and new people moving in, Pittsburgh is becoming an East Coast city. That downhome feeling is gone. Status rules.

[J_Church]

I've lived here for almost 6 months now and haven't gotten experienced this at all. If anything, most people here seem really down-to-earth, open, and friendly. Discussions about money haven't come up, but maybe I don't know people well enough yet for this to be a topic of conversation?

[Copanut]

It's been my experience that the people that HAVE money rarely talk about it. It's the wannabees that talk about it.

[UKyank]

I like to make it rain.
That's why it's always cloudy around here.

[ex-burgher]

I can attest that money is MUCH more important in southeastern cities like Atlanta and Charlotte than it is in Pittsburgh. Overall, Pittsburgh is the opposite of snobby as I'm sure Cleveland is as well. In Charlotte, you would not even think about putting a house on the market with laminate kitchen counters!

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Pittsburghpride83

True, but I find most people refer to these places as Pittsburgh in this forum. It is much like how the areas the the OP mentioned are not in the City of Cleveland either, but are typically referred to as Cleveland.

I think the posting board can be misleading on this site. Pittsburgh is the 62nd largest city in the country, but the "Pittsburgh" area which is typically spoken about on this board is the 20th largest metro in the country. Pittsburgh, like Cleveland, is a heavily majority suburban and exurban metro. The city limits of each are tiny in both cases are 55 square miles for Pittsburgh and 77 square miles for Cleveland

So yes none of the places you just mentioned actually fall in the city limits of Pittsburgh. On another note, having these types of places inside the city limits would greatly help pittsburgh exit Act 47 oversight and pay its bills.

Actually, Pittsburgh is #22 in MSA population. 20 is Baltimore and 21 is Denver.
List of Metropolitan Statistical Areas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by Mr.BadGuy

Compared to other places I've lived, Pittsburghers are more likely to regard the surrounding suburbs as part of the city. And one aspect of suburban life that has vexed many people since the concept of suburbs first started taking off in the 1950s is the prospect of keeping up (or not keeping up) with the Joneses. I submit that the talk of money and who has what is not unique to the area, but is instead an American phenomenon that you will find just about anywhere. Ever been out on Long Island? Oh boy, do they keep up with the Joneses there! In fact, we have plenty of 30/40-something peers in NYC who will go on and on about their "vacation homes" in the Hamptons or Montauk or whatever, but dig a little deeper, and it's ALWAYS either a time-share or a house that's been in the family for generations. They don't own them...they RENT them, just like most people do...but they care a LOT about coming across as having "more" than others.

As I said in a previous post, another difference I've noticed between Rust Belt cities vs. coastal cities is the relative perception of wealth. I've noticed for a while that some 20-somethings call peers "trust-fund kids", using that term interchangeably with "members of the upper-middle class." I observed identical behavior in Baltimore, which is usually considered Rust Belt, or at least post-industrial. Whereas to earn the moniker "trust-fund kid" in D.C., LA, or New York, you literally have to live off of dividends from investments of family wealth.

That is not just a Rust Belt thing, either. It's a youth thing, too. Young people right out of college can fall into a trap where they start comparing themselves to peers and anxiously keeping track of who has more. Some of them become obsessed with it and really drive themselves up a wall with the comparisons, to a degree that isn't healthy. I've noted that Pittsburgh has a larger percentage of 20-somethings compared to its peer cities — a more recent trend, to be sure, but it is happening. It certainly has a larger population of college students and new grads per capita at any rate, and has for a while. So it may simply be a matter of demographics, although the behavior is not unique to Pgh. 20-somethings in NYC compare wealth and gossip about who has what, too. It's just that the amount of wealth required to catch their interest is higher, due to the higher COL and salaries.

Most people in metro Denver say they live in "Denver" until you get up to Boulder County. We refer to people who have no visible means of support yet drive fancy cars, own fancy bikes, etc as "trust-funders". The "keeping up with the Joneses" here tends to revolve around how many 14ers you've climbed, how many double-black diamonds you've skiied, stuff like that.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

I think this is a suburban thing. I never noticed anyone talk about money until I went to college and was exposed to suburban kids on a regular basis. Money is a big friggin deal to people in Mt. Lebanon, Sewickley, Upper St. Clair, Fox Chapel, etc. City kids never talked about it because they didn't have any.

[SammyKhalifa]

Who the heck likes money?

Money sucks. I hate it.