Economics
What Poor People Know
Screw the Jones family. Don’t even try to keep up with them
I was fortunate to have spent most of my childhood living in a trailer in a small town.
Yes. Fortunate.
When I see Hollywood depictions of spoiled rich high school kids, I feel like I’m watching science fiction: That’s a world I just can’t imagine.
I’m happy about that.
I never had to feel bad about not being able to keep up with anybody else. Sure, some families had more and some had less, but there were only 39 kids in my graduating class, so we couldn’t scrape together enough kids to form separate cliques.
Everybody knew everybody, had known many of them from kindergarten, and if anybody tried to be too fancy, the rest of us would have seen right through them.
There was never a lot of “keeping up with the Joneses” for me. I always understood that was a game I’d lose.
I’ve found ways to live a good life without the benefit of a lot of money, and I’m justifiably proud of that.
It’s also taught me resilience and to find smart and creative ways to live better than you’d think possible.
