Nov 04 2005
When $100,000 Isn’t Enough
With all this Brooklyn squabbling over who deserves to have an attitude-free pint of beer in the neighborhood, I thought I’d turn the tables on the lovely materialism I got to witness yesterday in midtown. I was waiting for my takeout order in a mostly empty restaurant when I overheard two people talking, a mid 20-something girl and guy, not extravagantly dressed or particularly amazing looking. The girl was explaining how she had recently updated her resume and was considering applying for a new job that she was really excited about. I was only half-listening when she dropped the bomb. "I’m not even sure that they’d offer me $100,000 and I can’t live on that–it’s like half of what I make now. I mean, I have my apartment and my shopping … I guess I could cut down on shopping a little bit. Yeah, I think I’d have to ask my parents for help." <<jaw dropping>> At that moment, I couldn’t think of anything more revolting than hearing someone conclude that their parents would have to help them to survive in the city if they made a little less than $100,000.
9 Responses to “When $100,000 Isn’t Enough”
I guess when you’re born with a silver spoon in your mouth, it’s hard to make it on anything when your parents aren’t involved.
No wonder we can never move from my modest Clinton Hill apartment (we lived in the same place for 13 years). I make only $55k, so I must be pathetic in their eyes.
These people, who are obviously clueless, have no idea what life is like for the 80% of us that make much less than they do.
as someone who has done my darndest to make $100k a year (and might actually get there this year for the first time — I’m only 31 and run my own business) I am always amazed at the money big corporations (read: investment banks, consulting firms) pay completely unqualified people.
If I had kids, I’d make sure they knew how to play with data in Excel and know how to put together a kick ass Powerpoint presentation. It’s the key to a good job in this day and age.
Sick. Just sick. I’d like to smack that woman really hard. Sheesh. I mean if she has to settle for $100,000 she might have to start gentrifying East New York! What has the world come to…
Jeepers. I’ve never broken $25K… And hey, I’ve got a great life… and lovely neighbors.
Yes, pretty insane. But, and this is not in defense of the nitwit, Manhattan is very pricey. That why as one of the many people making under 100K a year, I moved to Brooklyn. Turns out I love it, but the primary reason I moved was to escape the crippling rents of Manhattan. So, this nitwit will either get money from her folks to stay in Manhattan or, hopefully, decide to support herself- and move to Brooklyn. Once there she can get busy pissing off Xavier and Sal with her snappy outfits and sense of entitlement. I have plenty of friends who make around 100K a year or more and trust me they are not living like kings, they just live in Manhattan.
We have just finished looking at this site which shows that NYC is the least affordable city to live in (http://www.aneki.com/expensive_us_cities.html)… nevertheless, one can very comfortably live on less than $100k AND have an apartment AND shop AND travel AND actually enjoy the city.
not if you’re shopping at Bergdorf’s or Saks’, baby!!!
When you think about it after city, state and federal tax you are looking at less than 50k a year. It’s the price of living in this city.