A timely reminder for Australians and New Yorkers alike, by my friend Melanie Poole: What would you need to earn before you would consider yourself wealthy? I live on scholarship stipends, amounting to about $35,000 per year. I dont think of myself as rich. Before Wagner I earned $80,000 (and I was the law school grad who took the low paying NGO route!) I didnt think of myself as particularly rich then either. I think that for NGO/social justicey types, especially those of us from comparatively poor backgrounds, thinking of oneself as wealthy can be confronting. But sometimes, I suddenly remember that I actually am. Rich. Loaded even. And that everyone I know is too. Because the average Brooklyn family earns less than $45,000. For a FAMILY. Walking around this neighborhood lately, it again hit me that things I regularly enjoy - cafes and bars that sell $5 almond lattes and $10 tempeh sandwiches, bars where I meet friends for oysters and $15 negronis, hot yoga classes - are totally unaffordable to the families around me. I feel the looming threat that the places I patronize represent, and feel moved and saddened by it, even though I am part of it - because I also know that there are many with a stronger and deeper claim to this space than I have. I dont know how we resolve all of these tensions. I do think that we need to remind ourselves, regularly, that if you are a single person who earns $35,000 per year, and know that in the future, when you have a family, you will be able to earn a lot more, then you should be pretty bloody grateful for that. Because you are rich.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:56:21 +0000
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