Why do rich people like white Christmas lights?

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Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,920
2,161
126
Originally posted by: Turin39789
Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Originally posted by: tbike06
Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Every house in my brother's neighborhood ($400-500k houses) has all white Christmas lights. I guess it's seen as classier, to the point where no one at all has colored lights. What compels these people to be so bland and whitebread that even their Christmas lights lack color?

Edit: I realize 400-500k is not a lot in most parts of the country, but this is in a Houston suburb, and one of the most expensive subdivisions in this area. It's expensive enough for Slim Thug to have a house there.

What are you smoking?

Most highly populated parts of the country. See the replies saying that 400-500k houses = middle class.

Sorry, >35k = middle class

Yeah. In nearly all of the midwest, a 500K home will get you a 5000 sq ft. mansion. I have one across the street from me.
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
57,481
20,004
146
Clear lights are trendy now.

I personally don't like them. I only use colored lights. Multi on the tree and red/green for accents.

But I also don't like how colored mini light strings now have pink bulbs. I liked it a lot more when it was just red, green, blue and yellow. But new strings (in an attempt to appear brighter) have added pink as well. So now its red, pink, green, blue and yellow.
 

bucwylde23

Diamond Member
Apr 21, 2005
4,180
0
71
I don't care for white lights. I don't care if my house looks "classy" It's only for a few weeks out of the year. White is the easy way out. colors FTW.
 

erub

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2000
5,481
0
0
Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Originally posted by: Turin39789
Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Originally posted by: tbike06
Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Every house in my brother's neighborhood ($400-500k houses) has all white Christmas lights. I guess it's seen as classier, to the point where no one at all has colored lights. What compels these people to be so bland and whitebread that even their Christmas lights lack color?

Edit: I realize 400-500k is not a lot in most parts of the country, but this is in a Houston suburb, and one of the most expensive subdivisions in this area. It's expensive enough for Slim Thug to have a house there.

What are you smoking?

Most highly populated parts of the country. See the replies saying that 400-500k houses = middle class.

Sorry, >35k = middle class

Middle class doesn't even mean anything in this country. People in the top 10% earning segment of the population will claim they are middle class, and so will people in the bottom 10%.

QFT. Although I have never inspected my parent's tax return, my mom claims that they are upper-middle class. In relative to their peers, this is truth -- they have friends that are much richer (but yet understateded about it, the old money), those that are much richer and love to flash it (the so-called novaeu rich--I have a couple of uncle's like this) and friends that have/earn less. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a 650K house in Dallas and an income much greater than 100K wouldn't exactly make them the 'median' income in this country.
 

mercanucaribe

Banned
Oct 20, 2004
9,763
1
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Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
I live in a pretty well off neighborhood...our house is part of the old part of it so we dont have that huge of a house but on the otherside they are all 500k+. They tell us that we are not to have any color lights in a yard lol. of course..we dont listen..but still...

That is extremely messed up. What kind of person votes for a rule like that? THERE is your War on Christmas.
 

Minerva

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 1999
2,134
25
91
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Originally posted by: Minerva
$500k is rich?

hehehehehehehehe

You should get out more.

Mr. Lifer meet Kettle. :p

Down here many people spend 2X more than that on their yachts and many are not a second home.

Rich usually implies net worth in the hundreds of millions or billions. Well off and wealthy are not really rich. A person with a net worth of a million or so is doing OK, perhaps middle class.

According to the OP our family would be "rich". We're more like the Waltons. (The 1970's TV show not the founders of Wal Mart.)

 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
35,117
2,265
126
Originally posted by: Minerva
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Originally posted by: Minerva
$500k is rich?

hehehehehehehehe

You should get out more.

Mr. Lifer meet Kettle. :p

Hey, what can I say? It got boring at the radio station at night.
Down here many people spend 2X more than that on their yachts and many are not a second home.

Rich usually implies net worth in the hundreds of millions or billions. Well off and wealthy are not really rich. A person with a net worth of a million or so is doing OK, perhaps middle class.

According to the OP our family would be "rich". We're more like the Waltons. (The 1970's TV show not the founders of Wal Mart.)

I don't think you get just how poor people are in other parts of the country. What do you base your statements about the implications of the word rich on?

Can we pin-point exactly what "rich" is? Probably not, but I don't see any reason to laugh at his suggestion that a person with a $500,000 house is rich, especially considering the value of houses over most of the country. $500K for a house is about 3.5 times the national median home value: Link
 

w00t

Diamond Member
Nov 5, 2004
5,545
0
0
I prefer the all white

My parents put colored stuff in bushes and stuff but the house has all white bulbs around the house I helped put em up today :)
 

Thraxen

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2001
4,683
1
81
All white has its own appeal, but is rather boring if everything is that way. We have one tree in the front window that is all white. Then we have a second tree back in the den that is multicolored. We have all green lights around the decorations on the fireplace mantle. We then have two miniature trees outside the front door that are both all white. We haven't put any lights on the house yet, but they will be multi-colored when we do.
 
D

Deleted member 4644

Originally posted by: Minerva
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Originally posted by: Minerva
$500k is rich?

hehehehehehehehe

You should get out more.

Mr. Lifer meet Kettle. :p

Down here many people spend 2X more than that on their yachts and many are not a second home.

Rich usually implies net worth in the hundreds of millions or billions. Well off and wealthy are not really rich. A person with a net worth of a million or so is doing OK, perhaps middle class.

According to the OP our family would be "rich". We're more like the Waltons. (The 1970's TV show not the founders of Wal Mart.)

hmm... I think you have a slightly odd view. I think that most Americans have a very broad view of middle class. A net worth of $1 million is solidly middle class according to the vast majority of people.

The line where "rich" starts is debatable. In some parts of the country, $1 million would let you live "richly." I think that almost all Americans agree that $10 million or more is "rich."

I think there is perhaps *some* distinction between people with 10 mil and people with 100 mil, but among the people I know with these amounts of money, there is in fact little difference in terms of how they live their lives.
 

getbush

Golden Member
Jan 19, 2001
1,771
0
0
I consider owning a Petercopter and Hindenpeter rich. If you only have one of those, you are not rich.
 

mercanucaribe

Banned
Oct 20, 2004
9,763
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Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
17,768
485
126
Ok I'll bite.

:shocked:

Wow this thread is like the cheesecake. It's too rich for me.

:laugh:
 

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
Aug 24, 2001
31,796
2
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WooHoo! My wife prefers the white lights. Must mean I'm rich!
 

1sikbITCH

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2001
4,194
574
126
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Originally posted by: Minerva
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Originally posted by: Minerva
$500k is rich?

hehehehehehehehe

You should get out more.

Mr. Lifer meet Kettle. :p

Hey, what can I say? It got boring at the radio station at night.
Down here many people spend 2X more than that on their yachts and many are not a second home.

Rich usually implies net worth in the hundreds of millions or billions. Well off and wealthy are not really rich. A person with a net worth of a million or so is doing OK, perhaps middle class.

According to the OP our family would be "rich". We're more like the Waltons. (The 1970's TV show not the founders of Wal Mart.)

I don't think you get just how poor people are in other parts of the country. What do you base your statements about the implications of the word rich on?

Can we pin-point exactly what "rich" is? Probably not, but I don't see any reason to laugh at his suggestion that a person with a $500,000 house is rich, especially considering the value of houses over most of the country. $500K for a house is about 3.5 times the national median home value: Link

A million dollar net worth is RICH. The middle class of America is not comprised of millionaires.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p60-231.pdf (page 11)
The medium income in America in 2005 was $46,326. To most Americans, someone living in a $500,000 house would be considered rich, especially with all those white Christmas lights :p
My guess is that nobody wants to be the gossip of the neighborhood. They all have appearances to keep up.

I live in what I consider to be a middle-class neighborhood ($180,000 homes, nearly all owner-occupied) and even here everyone decorates in white lights... except for my house with the 8 ft tall polar bear and couple thousand green and red bulbs covering the front of the house and across the lawn down to the street, and the gyrating HAPPY HOLIDAYS scrolling across the front porch. F*ck em :)
 

Bill Brasky

Diamond Member
May 18, 2006
4,324
1
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Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I own a $500+k house and I have colored lights.

Generalizations FTL!!!
On the other hand, I'm a poor college student, but I use all white Christmas lights.
 

mercanucaribe

Banned
Oct 20, 2004
9,763
1
0
Originally posted by: 1sikbITCH

I live in what I consider to be a middle-class neighborhood ($180,000 homes, nearly all owner-occupied) and even here everyone decorates in white lights... except for my house with the 8 ft tall polar bear and couple thousand green and red bulbs covering the front of the house and across the lawn down to the street, and the gyrating HAPPY HOLIDAYS scrolling across the front porch. F*ck em :)

:thumbsup:
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
57,481
20,004
146
I find it hilarious that otherwise intelligent people are arguing over a relative and subjective term as though it were quantitative.