Is San Diego Status Conscious? (Merced: middle-class, apartment, leasing)

[aheadofthecurve]

Is San Diego the kind of place where people cannot be told apart by thier wealth or "status"? In other words, where everyone freely mingles and you cannot pick out the rich from the poor? Or is it a place where undue emphasis is placed on symbols of wealth and status, such as clothes, cars, zip code etc? -- Where people will reject others based on thier wealth and status?

This is always a matter of degree...but I am curious to hear opinons. I am not from SD, but i've visited a few times and I really like the area. I'm also curious to hear what people who have moved from elsewhere think vs. the people who have been born and raised there think.

[NYSD1995]

Yes, San Diego is status conscious, but it's not as bad as it could be, considering the disparities of wealth in the area. San Diego has a large working class and underclass mixed in with the wealthy (many of whom are retired) and that tends to keep it from being too trendy.

I grew up on Long Island which is very status conscious, North Shore vs. South Shore, north of the highway vs. south of the highway, school district boundaries treated like national borders, etc, NYC influence everywhere. San Diego is not really like that, there are some broad geographic considerations (i.e. "North of 8", etc...) but most people don't care too much about that.

However like most of SoCal, many tend to be showy and drive expensive cars, wear expensive clothes (handbags, sunglasses), whether or not the actually have any money. A lot of people here are leasing a Lexus and living with their parents. There is a level of tacky-ness about money here that might take some getting used to, kind of a wanna-be LA syndrome (despite the fact everyone claims to hate LA). That you can pretty easily avoid.

However there is another side to the culture here - not about money inasmuch as it is about some perception of "street cred". That means you have a lot of "gangstas", "hippies" and "hipsters" and "gutter punks", "bros" and other vague subclasses of counter-culture types, mostly from from middle-class suburbia. In my opinion that is more related to quite pervasive drug culture in California, and as such, fairly easy to avoid.

[trailtramp]

SD status conscious??? Its #2 in phoniness only to LA. Just live on your charge cards, thats what the rest do.

[sav858]

Not really, at least that it's not any worse than CA's other big metro areas, SF and LA. SOME people are flashy and showy with what they wear but that's just themselves, I don't feel they reject or judge people that don't dress like that, at least not from my experience dealing with those types. They just like to wear that stuff.

I think a fair amount of the wealthier or more successful people dress down a lot here compared to other places. You'll have lawyers and other professionals dressing in boardshorts riding around on a beach cruiser or something like that. The style of dress here overall is VERY CASUAL and not that flashy or formal at all. That's kind of why I don't think SD is that "status concious" or showy as some people like to make it out to be, some people seem to focus on that small minority that likes to show off.

You'll here plenty of people say it is and go on about people leasing cars and living in debt but I honestly don't know anyone like that and wonder how some people on here know so much in depth personal information about all these people. How does anyone even know the credit card balances others or whether or not someone's car is a lease? I think people just see some these flashy types and just make a bunch of assumptions about them that may or may not be true. No one I work with or come across in my social circle are like that at all.

I grew up in Northern CA and see that same level of materialism and people buying luxury whatever up there that I see down here, maybe even more so up there. People will make fun of some of the poorer or dumpier parts, such as "East County, South of the 8, etc..." type crap but that isn't any different where I came from. There's always a good and bad part of town no matter where you live that people point out and JOKE about, it's usually good natured.

Basically no one here really gives a crap overall if you're poor or don't look/dress a certain way or live in a certain place. Poor surf bums live by wealthy people with seaside homes. Broke college students sharing the same areas with wealthy retirees. Not all of SD is the same of course and certain areas will probably have different experiences for some people, but in MY experience in my 8 years here, mainly in Central SD County, SD is not that status conscious at all and most people don't care about that crap.

[runnerguy45]

Yes. To the point of silliness.

[jksouthbay88]

A little bit.I know there's a South Bay(poorest Megaregion)-North County(richest Megaregion) grudge.

[esmith143]

In a word, no, sav858 describes it well. Wealthy people tend to segregate themserves into a few school districts, though that's probably the same everywhere nowadays, and there are massive numbers of BMW's and Lexi in the streets, to the point where those cease to be real status symbols (take trip on any North County freeway and you'll probably meet more BMW's than Chevies). Here in CA, if you want to show that you're rich, you have to get a Bentley.

Some areas exhibit the keeping up with the Joneses pattern, but that's the opposite of status awareness (people trying to differentiate from each other by buying expensive stuff though their social status is basically the same). But most people don't really care about status symbols or pay attention to them.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by sav858

How does anyone even know the credit card balances others or whether or not someone's car is a lease? I think people just see some these flashy types and just make a bunch of assumptions about them that may or may not be true.

25-year olds don't drive 60 thousand dollar cars unless they:
- earn enough money to afford a ~500/mo+ car payment (extremely rare)
- inherited enough money to afford it (extremely rare)
- mommy and daddy are paying for it (common)
- live in a crap apartment or with their parents and / or lease it for 349/mo (very common)

There is no other way. Do you honestly think the goon with the sideways baseball cap is secretly a top-notch bioscience engineer?

Take a note of all the late-model entry level luxury imports you see on a given day. Lexus IS250, Infiniti G35, BMW 3-series. They are literally a dime-a-dozen and I would bet 90% are leased. If you don't know people who do it you don't know many working class / native San Diegans. My 23-year old cousin is a manager at Jamba Juice. She drives a 50 thousand dollar Mercedes Benz that she got brand spanking new.

[esmith143]

If your point that a young San Diegan is more likely to spend his first dollar on a nice car than to put it into a savings account or to get an apartment of his own, that's probably true.

Is that an example of status consciousness? I don't think so.

You don't need to make much to afford a nice car, as your own example demonstrates. BMW's, Infinitis, Audis depreciate relatively slowly, that means low lease payments. You can lease a new Mercedes Benz roadster for $450/month. Add $100/month for insurance. Who can't afford to spend 550/month on a car, especially when you can live with your parents?

[f_m]

Does it matter? Most of the time you could wear sandals and shorts except places where you need a suit. I think there are people that buy BMW's used to give a better impression than a new Honda or something, but then again a used BMW 5-10 years old is cheaper than a new Honda. For some reason they don't hold their resale value after 7-8 years or so. Many ~2000+ model year ones are in the mid-10k range.