UPenn professor asks students what they thought the average American worker makes in a year and says that 25% of them thought it was in six figures (>= $100,000).
https://twitter.com/NinaStrohminger/status/1483992827482804224
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No surprise there. Many kids from upper middle class/wealthy communities (and that makes up a big % of the Penn student body) have zero idea about how most Americans live.
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There is a Twitter thread posted by a Wharton grad that also speaks to this:
https://twitter.com/jasminericegirl/status/1484328356405411840?s=21
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This definitely goes along with the experience I had and related in the other thread, but I can’t read a lot of hers since I’m not on Twitter.
Kids only know what they grow up with.
When lower socio-economic kids from our school get into top schools (not common) they can often go for free, but differences they find tend to make them feel really left out. The academics they can handle. The social life? Not so easy - esp when it involves spending money.
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I mentored a young man from a very low income family who attended a top LAC & then an ivy. He was blown away by how well off his classmates were, as well as how they assumed everyone there had what they had. At the ivy, the profs made assumptions about the students being from well-off backgrounds. He was used to the very mixed socioeconomic area where he was raised … around here, people realize that some kids live in huge houses on all sports lakes, while some live in trailers that are meant for weekend camping. If friends went out after a school function, everyone shared food with the kids who didn’t have money with them.
But … I substituted in this district, and I helped with the state exam. They spent time prior to the actual exam bubbling in statistical responses. One question asked about their household income. The vast majority had absolutely no idea how much their parents earned. No clue at all. I don’t think I could have told you what my parents made, and I doubt my kids have a clue what we earned.
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One of the things I wonder is if the lower-income students at top schools are able to take advantage of the alumni networks or if the social differences keep them out to some extent. 
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I disagree. Kids know what they are taught.
My son grew up in a very privileged household, but we’ve worked hard to make him aware of that and how he and we got there. He’s done very hard, low paying jobs. He understands the value of a dollar.
I’m deeply disappointed that there are kids out there who don’t know better. It’s not their fault though. It’s the fault of their parents who may be unaware themselves.
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Just to provide some further context: this questionnaire or survey (unclear what it really was) was done in an undergraduate class on “Ethics and Social Responsibility.” Some of the students in her class are now complaining that she made them fill out the survey as part of a required class assignment and then tweeted about it, without their consent to being part of her social media post, which caused them embarassment. Also they all think the person who said 800K was ■■■■■■■■her. Reddit - Dive into anything
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One of them thought it was $800k? S/he must live on another planet or is stupid. Probably the latter.
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Well as some have responded here, their own children don’t have a clue what the parents make! Don’t know why they would be approaching college or in college and STILL have no idea.
I had no problem letting my kids know as they became teenagers what I made and what their father made. It helped them understand the decisions we made re spending on: gifts, vacations, food choices, car choices, etc. They could also surmise from other family members and their friend’s parents lived, what other people made.
Slowly, but surely they could see that not everyone near us or in our family group or friend group or neighborhood made the same amounts of $$$.
Income earned starts becoming clearer to them when they get their first paying job, be it retail worker, grocery store, nanny, wait staff etc.
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The young man I mentored found that his classmates got internships and jobs through doors opened by their parents (either the parents themselves or the parents’ friends). He had intended to work at a place like Goldman Sachs, but he couldn’t make headway into the business. His URM status is not one that gives him a leg up, so that didn’t help. He ended up in tech, doing the mathematical side of things. He didn’t experience issues in that field, although I don’t know whether he called on the alumni network.
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My adult kids still don’t know what we made. I don’t know why they would need to know. They had everything they needed & most of what they wanted (edited thanks to @TdoesCollege). They were aware that some had more and many had less. When they talked about friends going on fancy vacations, we talked about our goal of paying for them to go to college, and we told them the college budget. We discussed the importance of saving at all stages of life. It’s possible to raise kids to understand money without sharing everything. It’s not like we were hiding anything. It was just never relevant to our discussions.
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Or citing a ridiculously high number on purpose, just to get a rise out of the prof.
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Our family does pretty OK and always told our D we have enough money for everything we need and some of the things we want. We buy the best quality we can afford and take care of it (mostly because of my Puritan/New England values). When she was in middle school, one of her friends said we must be poor because we didn’t all get new iPhones.
Fast forward to her first day away at her LAC when she texted me a link to her roommate’s bed pillows - $400 a piece and she had 3 on her bed. D realized we really were poor that day.
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Saddens me.
- Knowledge gap among students in elite school and society
- Professor exposed the naiveness but lacking the context of such an inquiry/tweet
100%. Our kids could have “shadowed” just about any profession based on my connections. Instead I put them to work in min wage jobs over the summers in HS. While some of our friends sent their kids on “poverty” missions, mine worked the local soup kitchen with me every month. You cannot replicate the experience of working with your hands with colleagues who are living paycheck to paycheck or serving people truly down on their luck.
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We are upper middle class, but D has a diverse socioeconomic friend group at Penn that encompasses FGLI to one-percenters. She has noticed some tension between her lower and upper income friends. A particular flashpoint seems to be second/vacation homes. Interestingly, the lower income friends also regard the dynamics of the friend group differently. The lower income friends mistrust the upper income friends and don’t actually believe they are true friends, thus leading to self-segregation and missed social/networking opportunities.
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Did you really mean “They had everything they needed & most of what they wanted”?
Yes. Big oops!!! Thanks for pointing that out.
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