I was going walking this morning (ye, I know, shocking:) and I decided to take a turn off of Prior Park main road into Prior Park Crescent which is a relatively new section, nicely landscaped, a bit more upscale.
Walking through there just brought home to me the difference between those who are wealthy and used to it and those nouveau-riche, just-come, struggling middle class folk.
In all the 15 minutes or so that I walked through there, not one large, overfed, overbred dog barked at me. No doubt these people had dogs but they had no need, desire or inclination to display them in the vulgar, inconsiderate way that middle-class heights and terrace folk so often seem to need to do. If they had dogs, they were safely tucked behind large walls - these people can afford walls, unlike say...many of my neighbours in the terrace who can afford large, ill-trained dogs but cannot really afford to keep them effectively- can't get them trained, don't have the money for a proper fence or even a proper chain.
That's the difference between the wealthy and the nouveau-riche that populate Bim now. Wealth emanates subtly. The nouveau-riche seem to need to desperately display their new-found, mortgaged and indebted to the max possessions- trophy dogs, gas-guzzling SUVs for everyone in the family whether they need them or not and trips to Miami and New York to shop, without a taking in a single bit of culture.
As you can tell, it annoys the shit out of me. I rail against the middle class a bit, which is kind of ironic cos I'm middle class myself. But the classless, parochial ways many of my compatriots use their little bit of money just irks me. Why buy a car for you, your wife and your two grown children when you're all going the same direction? Why not use that to travel someplace more interesting than Miami or Trinidad? Go to the Maldives or Kenya or something- broaden your horizons. When i used to attend church with COW Williams (before he was Sir Cow) I found it most interesting that he drove a somewhat beat up pick up truck, even though he was already a multi-millionaire- maybe even a billionaire by then.
I guess I say all that to say this- middle class people too often use their money in the wrong way and as if they never had it before (which they probably didn't). But oh gosh, stop acting like yuh just reach!
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2 comments:
I'm a little distrubed by the tone of this article. Firstly, I think you are incorrectly assuming that wealth ALWAYS emanates subtly, an assumption that I disagree with. If this was always the case, people like Sir David Seale would not be chauffeur driven every day. And, whereas I disagree with the need for a family of 4 licensed drivers, who ALL travel in the same direction, at the exact same time, every single day, having 4 cars, I don't think its fair to assume that grown 'children' have sponged off of their father and he was generous enough to have bought their cars. Doesn't that seem a little exaggerated? Also, I agree with you that the middle class should travel more for the experience, but the middle class families who travel to Miami, New York or Puerto Rico annually, usually go to pack up barrels of food-stuff. Mostly, those who I know who travel for recreation, double it up and cruise home from Miami or Puerto Rico, or they may go on an Alaskan or Mediterranean cruise on their way home. Does that count as a 'suitable' experience? The middle class family may not be spending their money well enough to suit you, but I think you are being a bit harsh, and making a few too many generalisations. PS - maybe the wealthy have alarm systems instead of guard dogs.
Well obviously wealth does not always emanate subtly and it's not always classy. Didn't mean to make that generalisation, because after all, look at Donald Trump. :s Or George Bush who is from a quite wealthy family but didn't travel outside of the USA but once (to Mexico) until he became President. So the wealthy can also be crass.
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