Because they buy glossy branded shoes with their credit cards and wear them over the overwashed cheap-torn socks.
The poor person has nothing to hide. His status is clearly evident from his lifestyle. So he is not bothered about what others would think of him.
The rich person has everything at his disposal. He needn’t care about his image. His wealth will do the talking. So even if he is dressed in non-branded wear or has an old car, people would consider him as an epitome of simplicity.
Between these two categories lies the middle-class.
They want to be associated with the ‘rich’ image rather than ‘poor’ image.
Hence, they are more concerned about showing that they are rich rather than being rich.
I will give a very simple example.
Many middle-class people are fascinated with owning a car. They prefer a brand that is usually beyond their financial status and put aside good chunk of their monthly salary to pay this EMI.
But from the moment they have car inside the house, they think thrice to take it out for a drive. They get scared thinking about the fuel expenses, parking fees, toll gate fees etc.
And by the time they painstakingly clear the EMIs, they would have drove that now-depreciated car less than a hundred times.
Same logic goes for weddings, gifts and celebrations. A rich person has the liberty to have a budget wedding but a middle-class person doing the same treats it like a prestige issue. Hence, he uses all his savings, borrows if necessary, and then puts up a grand show. He then spends rest of his life working hard to repay the expenses for that evening’s celebration.
In one episode of Neeya Naana, a Tamil debate show, a lady said
My husband bought me a gold necklace and earrings. I felt excited and wore it for a family event that day. And the next day, he took that jewellery, mortgaged them in a bank and took loan to repay the money he took from a money lender to buy them. He paid hefty interest to him that day. Till today, he is still paying the dues to the bank.
This summarizes the grave mistake middle-class people make.
In an attempt to match the ‘rich’ tag in the society, they buy most of things on loan, end up paying more than their value, and live from paycheck to paycheck. And at this time, if some unexpected expense knocks their door- a fatal disease or pandemic or loss of job or a dent on car, they are finished.
The rich take great care managing their assets and investments, while the less well heeled go into debt buying cars and televisions they don’t really need.
The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’"
― Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
-Srinath Nalluri
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