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An interesting statistical fact I've recently run across - apparently, a lot more people think they're middle class than are actually middle class. It's a popular thing to identify as, which is why politicians are constantly pandering to it. Apparently, here in Canada, right now "middle class" is somewhere between $35,000 and $70,000 a year... I don't mind telling you guys, I don't even get close to that, and I don't think most of the people I know do either.
But, of course, like Jamie, if you looked at me, you'd probably assume I was middle class. I certainly don't consider myself to be poor. I eat well, my job isn't dangerous or physically demanding, I don't have creditors harassing me, I've never had my phone or power cut off due to an unpaid bill, I've never had to get a payday loan, I don't have an untreated chronic respiratory infection. The signifiers of poverty simply aren't applicable to me.
I am not, culturally, poor.
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(Wednesday afternoon, INT: EB and JH's living room.)
JH: I... I'm middle class. Why would I not be middle class?
EB: I checked the numbers - roommate's prerogative - and you are officially below the poverty line, my friend.
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JH: That can't be right. I don't drink canned beer, I don't rent my furniture...
EB: You don't have furniture to rent. Sleeping on the floor is not a mark of affluence.
GU: You sleep on the floor?
JH: I have blankets.
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EB: You make minimum wage, and you don't always get forty hours a week. If you're not poor, no one's poor.
JH: Now, I know that's not right. Greg gave us all raises just a few weeks ago.
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EB: Was it twenty-five cents, at the end of the month?
JH: Yeah, how did you kn-
EB: Because Greg wasn't the one who gave you that raise.
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