Shut Up Rich People

I really, really have no patience for rich people complaining about their money situation. I know it's fun and all to bitch and moan, I'm an expert in complaining about things, but it's another thing to let yourself to be used in a widely circulated publication as an example of how "tough" it is for the rich.

Today's exhibit A for rich people complaning "woe is me" (Isaiah 6:1-8) is this Yahoo/WSJ article with people making more than $250,000 complaining that they don't feel rich. Since I read all these articles, I can always tell a hack writer when they don't really explain why these people are so hard up despite making a crapload of money. It invariably indicates that the writer is looking for a "theme" piece and is willing to scrape together any example, regardless of their merits, to fit his foregone conclusion.

Here, the writer buries it in the penultimate paragraph of the piece:

For the Parnells, their perception of themselves is based on the math.

I love that he opens with that sentence. Like, "hey man, this is fucking science. You can't argue with this shit."

The value of their house is down $60,000.

Wow, cry me a river. You're doing better than most. How much is it worth now? Who knows, they leave that out. They do say that it's a family of five in a "2,500-square-foot home." Gosh, how can they survive at only 500-sq-foot per person? How horrible.

Ms. Parnell says the couple's gross income last year was about $260,000. Taxes, premiums for medical care and deductions for Social Security and their 401(k) contributions cut the gross to about $12,000 per month.

That's $144,000 a year. That's great. But working backwards ... if she and her husband max their 401(k) contributions, that's pre-tax $31k, or we're at $174k. This works out to about 67%, or 33% to taxes and healthcare. Again, welcome to the rest of America. Move to Denmark and then start complaining (although they like their high taxes just fine).

The family tithes $1,300 a month at their church.

Hel-lo. What do we have here? For those doing not doing the math at home, that's 6% of their gross income out to their church, or 10.8% of their take home. I don't really begrudge them what they spend money on (I do, but shhhhhh), but if you're dropping that kind of money on church, don't go complaining to the WSJ that you feel poor. That's a signficant voluntary expenditure.

Their mortgage, second mortgage and payment on land they bought is nearly $4,000 a month.

Zing! I'm going to make a big assumption here and assume that they bought into the big housing bubble and shortsightedly took out a second mortage to buy some land that's not worth a hell of a lot now. $4,000 is a lot of money to pay out on a mortgage, a second mortgage, and "land," but whose fault is that? "I blew all my money on the dog track and now I don't feel so RICH anymore! Waaaaaaaah!!!!"

Shut up rich people. You may not "feel" rich, but it's because you're blowing your money on shit. People make bad investments all the time, but those people, like these people, should not be used as examples of how $250,000 isn't all that much. It is a lot, but won't feel like a lot of you spend a ton of it unwisely.

Other expenses, including their family car payment, insurance and college funds, as well as basics like food, utilities and donations to charities, leave them with about $1,200 left over each month.

I don't have any grief with the $5,500 they spend a month on this stuff, but remember, $1200 a month is what they have free and clear after all of this. This is money they can spend on any dumb crap. A lot of people would love to have $14,000 to spend a year if everything else they could possible need was already covered. It's not the end of the world.

Moreover, that $1200 is less than what they give their church every month. Christians all want to be good Christians (well, maybe not...), but they need to think about whether their church deserves more money a month than they have to spend.

Back to the larger point, these people don't feel rich because they're spending almost half their take home salary on elective expenditures and bad investments. That's not the fault of the $260,000 they make a year. That's their own dumb fault. Anything over $250,000 is a lot of money, and people survive on far, far less. If it doesn't feel like they are rich, then maybe they should step back and reevaluate their finances.

In any case, no writer should be wasting everyone's time devoting space to the woes of these rich people. Sure, writers love to be counterintuitive, but it's really quite nauseating to read about people that have no business complaining.


One other thing from the article:

San Jose, Calif., Mayor Chuck Reed calls a family living in Silicon Valley earning $250,000 "upper working class." That is about what two engineers working at a technology firm can expect to make, but "a family earning $250,000 a year can't buy a home in Silicon Valley," he said.

Is that because $250,000 isn't a lot of money? No, it's because the price of homes in Silicon Valley has been insane. Thankfully, for people looking to buy, house prices are tanking. Obviously, not good for home owners. Once some reasonableness is brought back to the housing market (it's still declining and I'm still standing by 2011-12 for bottom), then $250,000 will feel just fine for buying a house in Silicon Valley. In any case, I do feel greater sympathy for people in real estate bubbles like Silicon Valley.
posted by A_B at 2:55 PM