An interesting Metafilter post today, pointing to two people who are publicly making decent lives for themselves on extremely limited budgets. One is a college-educated white guy in his 20s who lives on $20,000 a year and has a goal of living in 10 cities in 10 years. The other is a college-educated white guy in his 20s who lives on $11,000 a year in an RV.

 

Aside from the obvious, one thing both gentlemen have in common is a professed disbelief for people who can't "budget properly." Another thing they have in common is a lot of people are wondering "Why do you hate these guys so much?" Because make no mistake, the internet has been dishing up a lot of fairly scathing review in both cases.

 

In a very broad sense, of course, a lot of people (myself included) have grown tired of listening to college-educated white guys in their 20s talking about why they are awesome, and why everyone else is lame. I understand that nothing I can say will ever prevent a college-educated white guy in his 20s from pontificating about what's wrong with everyone (except himself). But a girl has to try, right?

 

What both of these fellows are missing from the picture is (surprise) a sense of perspective, and of the weight and contents of their invisible backpacks. For one thing, most people who are financially struggling have families. Your budgetary equation is a lot different when you have kids. Not only do you have extra people to feed, but kids are also an unending source of unexpected financial emergencies. 

 

Both writers explain that they have health insurance, and express surprise that anyone else does not. They are apparently unaware of the fact that health insurance is a lot more expensive if you have kids. And that kids get sick a lot. 

 

They also both have a substantial savings acting as a buffer. That's great, and everyone should have one. In fact, most people did, until something happened (like a job loss or a ballooning mortgage) and they ate through it, and now they are broke.

 

It is this complete, willful lack of empathy which rubs people the wrong way. And even though these men are currently touring life in the bottom 1% of income, it is an attitude which they share with the top 1%. And it's why the rest of us are so ticked off by it all.

 

If any good can come of this, I hope it's that publishers realize there's a market for this kind of writing. And that they actively solicit memoirs from other people living in the bottom 1%. Real people, with real problems, living real lives hand-to-mouth. That's who I want to hear from.