LouNeko

That’s the thing. I did. We are all lower middle class households. It’s just that as an immigrants from a poorer country I don’t have an inhertit wealth sitting around in the family. actually it’s the opposite, members of your extended family expect you to send them money since you’re making 10x their monthly income. My friend pays zero rent since his wife has inherited her grandmother’s 4 room apartment. I will have to spend the next 15 years paying of my 2 room apartment that is almost half my monthly income in lian payments. My friends pick up new expensive hobbies like Warhammer 40k. I don’t have 200 bucks to dish out for some figurines. That’s almost my entire monthly gas budget.

When we still used to hang out the topics devolved into them talking about installing an air conditioner for their apartment, putting solar panels on the roof, getting an ebike for 7 grand. And all I could contribute was that I’ve recently gotten a new keycaps for my keyboard of Amazon for 30 bucks and I changed the oil in my car myself.

It’s things like those that make you feel disconnected even from your close friends.

One thing the article doesn’t go into is the factor of immigration. I am a first generation immigrant. All I had, all I have and all I ever will have, I work for. Nothing made me feel more disconnected from my closest friends (who aren’t immigrants) was when their the older generation family started to die off and suddenly the had access to large sums of money (6-digit sums) through inheritance. Suddenly it wasn’t about going to the cinema on the weekend, or bowling or just hanging out. No now it’s planning vacations half way around the globe, going on cruises, festivals, RV trips, etc. The discussion has shifted from who has a car to pick everybody up, to which one of their multiple cars their going tale to come separately. I would be lying if I said that I’ve never had to take out a payday loan to go on a trip with my friends. At one point you start to wonder whether the benefit of socializing is still worth the stress that the financial burden puts on you. My family is poor, I will never all of a sudden have an influx in disposable wealth to throw around. I’m not saying the way people spend their inheritance money is wrong, it just shows how completely on point this article is.

If this ever happens to me, just fucking kill me.