So yesterday i decided i wanted to get some authentic mexican food and the part of town i live in doesnt have it. So I figured the best place to look for authentic mexican food would be the poor side of town. Now i always knew where the poor side was, but never really went there. When i got there I saw about 15 authentic mexican restaurants almost right next to each other. (I cant imagine any of them make money lined up so close to each other) But anyway, thats not the point of the story. The point was, that as i was there, I noticed alot of late model mercedes around (more than i would've thought that would be in that area) and of course they were "sittin' on 22's" Now i dont get this...why would someone choose to live in a poor (and bad) area of town and pay more for their car payment than for their rent? (fyi, a house costs between 15 to 50k in this area and this is in California) And you can tell who the poor people driving mercedes are by the way they are dressed and the way they speak when they are not in their car. And another thing...why do poor people wear so much gold jewelry and diamond earrings. I saw a woman in dirty sweat pants and sweat shirt wearing more jewelry than the queen of england. Do they think they are fooling anyone? we know they are poor. is it the whole "i want to be the biggest fish in this pond" thinking? Like if you live in a poor area and you make 30k per year and you spend half your money on your car and the rest on jewelry, do the other poor people think he's the big fish in that area? I mean isnt it better to be the poorest person in a rich area than the richest person in a poor area?
It's like that everywhere... I live in NYC...white neighborhood, upper middle class family. Some of my friends / mostly white that live in a nearby less-rich neighboorhood do the same thing. One guy I know droped out of H.S. ...works full time for 450$ a week....and pays 1200$ monthly payments on financing his 330XI series + insurance..hes only 20, yet he parks the car on the street, and gets mad when people steal his mirror ( happend twice) or he gets it keyed. I mean he can barely afford that, lives with his parents obviously, and doesnth ave money to even go out because he has to pay for the car, so he gets like what? 500$ a month for his own self? I mean... who is he trying to fool? Just because you drive a better car than me doesnt mean you are more wealthy than I am, it's sort of a disguise to those who dont know him - to think of him higher and think this guy is makin cake all the time. I think there are too many people out there trying to look and live big but their not - its like a temporary costume to the outside world and make themselfs feel better. lol
Soon they won't be able to. When their lease runs out [or their car gets repo'd, whichever comes first], lenders won't be so loosey-goosey with granting credit in the future. A lot of German luxo-rides will be disappearing from the streets...
no doubt there alot of people living under the illusion that they are wealthy. As far as Im concerned you're only wealthy if you own assets with very little leverage and have a lot of cash. not stocks not real estate. Everything else is a mirage. Right now if you have a couple million in cash two homes paid off and a few other things with little leverage you are better off than 99 percent of the population. Its the wealthy going bankrupt.
bc more ppl see you in your car, than drive past your house. ego/pride etc. you can pull up in a 'fancy' car and ppl say 'oh he must be doing well... look at that car' but if you pull up in a beater and you have a nice house noone will ever know... they would just say 'wow what a piece of sh!t.'