Nothing divides and/or brings people together more than money. It is a commonplace necessity in everyday life. The more you have of it, the nicer things you can purchase or the more problems you face. The less you have, well, that speaks for itself. In Minneapolis, MN, there is a clear division of the annual incomes. Residing at the bottom of the financial chain is the welfare community. Here, the houses are falling apart and are something of a lost cause. No amount of renovation or construction seems capable of fixing these beaten structures and, even if such a task were possible, the residents don't have the proper funds to restore their homes. There's a constant push by the city to destroy more and more of the property here (in order to make way for office buildings, shopping centers) but those in this community push back, continuously. And on the next rung sit the middle class families who struggle to stay afloat just under the crèmè de la crèmè. Distinguishing themselves from the poor and establishing themselves with the rich seems a neverending battle, what with some of the poor thinking they're not better and some of the rich wanting nothing to do with them. At the highest level of these sociel tiers, finally, are those stereotypical rich folk who are seen driving to work in their Mercedes-Benz or picking up their children in their Range Rover.
Everyone hopes and dreams of having at least a taste of how it might feel to have an endless bank account or at least envies those who have that luxury. The rich kids flaunt their money and their apparent prestige, driving through the poor neighborhood to shout obscenities at the less fortunate or refuse to even go close to these individuals because they believe they'll catch the 'poor disease.' The middle class kids copycat their well-off counterparts, in hopes of getting on the good side with the higher-ups so they'll be noticed, so that they'll mean something. But the less fortunate, unwilling to be humiliated and spat upon, do not take any of this behavior sitting down. They fight back with vandalism and their street smarts, calling the middle class kids out when they attempt to be something they're not and pointing out to the wealthier kids that, no matter what they do, money won't buy them happiness.
In this city, thanks to your parents incomes -- their failures or their successes -- you'll run into neighborly trouble no matter what tax bracket you fall into. |
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