summercomfort | (no subject)

How to tell if you are spoiled:

(1) your own cell phone
( ) a television in your bedroom
( ) an iPod
( ) a photo printer
( ) your own phone line
( ) TiVo or a generic digital video recorder
(2) high-speed internet access
( ) a surround sound system in bedroom
( ) DVD player in bedroom
( ) at least a hundred DVDs
( ) a childfree bathroom
( ) your own in-house office
( ) a pool
( ) a guest house
( ) a game room
( ) a queen-size bed or larger
( ) a stocked bar
( ) a working dishwasher
( ) an icemaker
(3) a working washer and dryer
( ) more than 20 pairs of shoes
( ) at least ten things from a designer store
( ) expensive sunglasses
( ) framed original art
( ) Egyptian cotton sheets or towels
(4) a multi-speed bike
( ) a gym membership
( ) large exercise equipment at home
( ) your own set of golf clubs
( ) a pool table
( ) a tennis court
( ) local access to a lake, large pond, or the sea
( ) your own pair of skis
( ) enough camping gear for a weekend trip in an isolated area
( ) a boat
( ) a jet ski
( ) a neighborhood committee membership
( ) a beach house or a vacation house/cabin
( ) wealthy family members
(5) two or more family cars
( ) a walk-in closet or pantry
(6) a yard
( ) a hammock
( ) a personal trainer
(7) good credit
( ) expensive jewelry
( ) a designer bag that required being on a waiting list to get
( ) at least $100 cash in your possession right now
( ) more than two credit cards bearing your name (not counting gas cards or debit cards)
( ) a stock portfolio
(8) a passport
( ) a horse
( ) a trust fund (either for you or created by you)
( ) private medical insurance
( ) a college degree, and no outstanding student loans

Do you:
( ) shop for non-needed items for yourself (like clothes, jewelry, electronics) at least once a week
( ) do your regular grocery shopping at high-end or specialty stores
( ) pay someone else to clean your house, do dishes, or launder your clothes (not counting dry-cleaning)
( ) go on weekend mini-vacations
( ) send dinners back with every flaw
( ) wear perfume or cologne
( ) regularly get your hair styled or nails done in a salon
( ) have a job but don't need the money OR
( ) stay at home with little financial sacrifice
( ) pay someone else to cook your meals
( ) pay someone else to watch your children or walk your dogs
( ) regularly pay someone else to drive you taxis
( ) expect a gift after you fight with your partner

Are you:
( ) an only child
( ) married/partnered to a wealthy person
( ) baffled/surprised when you don't get your way

Have you:
( ) been on a cruise
(9) traveled out of the country
( ) met a celebrity
( ) been to the Caribbean
(10) been to Europe
( ) been to Hawaii
(11) been to New York
( ) eaten at the space needle in Seattle
( ) been to the Mall of America
(12) been on the Eiffel tower in Paris
(13) been on the Statue of Liberty in New York
(14) moved more than three times because you wanted to
( ) dined with local political figures
(15) been to both the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast

Did you:
( ) go to another country for your honeymoon
( ) hire a professional photographer for your wedding or party
( ) take riding or swimming lessons as a child
( ) attend private school
( ) have a Sweet 16 birthday party thrown for you

Written by someone who has a very different conception of "spoiled" than I do.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

so are you spoiled, or not spoiled?

I scored substantially higher, at 23, but that's no surprise; I'm spoiled and I know it (though I like to think I don't act like it TOO too much). Still, I would take issue with a lot of these items. For one thing, there is a difference between being spoiled and being upper-middle class. The fact that my family lives in a house that has normal house accoutrements adds like four points to my score right there; houses do tend to have a yard, a dishwasher, and some way to make ice. And the fact that it's a house in Florida virtually guarantees that I'll have access to the sea. Oh so many problems... I'm not going to spend too much time on this. But I do have one question:

A childfree bathroom? What the hell is that?

I feel that there's a difference between "spoiled" and "using earned money to spend on things", like an iPod or a good computer or spending extra to get the high-speed internet (that is a NECESSITY, not an OPTION). And a cell phone isn't really a luxury item anymore unless you get one with full whistles and bells.

I think it's appropriate probably for the younger crowd on LJ/MySpace where they aren't working full-time and get/expect lots. But for college-age and older, it's not about "spoiled", it's about how you choose to spend the money that you make. Granted, there's a certain amount of privilege involved, so if it was "how much privilege do you have?" or "how do you spend your money?" versus "how spoiled are you?", it would probably fit better.

Plus I took swimming lessons at Rinconada, not exactly the ritziest place to learn how to swim. And my mom has some framed original art... a piece of mine from when I was in kindergarten. Not exactly spoiled there, either.

Many people in America don't have houses; they rent cheap apartments that have no dishwashers, no yard, and their old fridges can only make ice if you fill ice cube tray with water and leave it in the freezer for a while. And plenty of people in Florida live nowhere near the ocean. Florida has a lot of coast, but people also live in the inner areas. Though I agree that access to a lake or the sea doesn't make someone rich or spoiled. None of these things independently make someone spoiled. If you have more than a few, you're probably upper middle class or higher, and then you're somewhat more likely to be spoiled, but that's about it.

I wonder if the hundred DVDs thing counts if every single one is a bootleg...

I know. It was part of my argument that the test was measuring upper-middle-classhood, not spoilage. Though of course you're right that plenty of people in Florida don't live near the ocean; I was being crotchety.

I take issue to the use of the term "spoiled" in this meme. Yes, we come from middle class (perhaps even upper-) families and expect high speed internet and a certain worldliness and gadgetry in our lives that isn't absolutely *necessary*, but it's how our lifestyle works. Spoiled makes it sound .. guilty. The thing that strikes me about this test is that it sounds like someone who went into their rich friend's house and went "wow! We don't have any of that... they're obviously so *spoiled* by their money"

Yeah, I agree. That's pretty much what I was getting at. It's a lifestyle we're used to, but I don't think we're expecting it to be handed to us, either -- spoiled, to me, has the connotation of "I want this and I get it with minimal effort". It's not really "spoiled" if you work for your money and use it to buy things you want.

It's pretty clear that there's a difference between class and spoiled-ness. But the meme also makes no distinction between spoiled and sheltered. A lot of people aren't really spoiled- they don't pitch fits if they don't get their way and they know they have to work for expensive things- but they're sheltered. They haven't experienced being poor, or having to make serious sacrfices in their lives. This isn't a negative personality trait, it just means that they lack a little bit of life experience, a lack which will either remedy itself with time or never become necessary.

a childfree bathroom may be, say, one of those that's attached to the master bedroom, like, on the inside. I just interpretted it to be your own private bathroom.

I have many issues with this meme, since it's more about being privileged than spoiled, and privilege doesn't come free. It does have a stronger inherited sense. Houses and dishwasher can be passed down. For example, I would consider myself "spoiled" because I can go to college with no financial worries thanks to the hard work that my parents put in. In exchange there's soul-leasing and guilt, but at the same time there's a lot of things that I don't have to worry about.

Another issue are the stupid things like "have you being to New York" followed by "have you been on the Statue of Liberty" followed by "have you been to both coasts", which just sounds like some MidWest person who really want to go to New York and thinks anyone with the ability to do so is highly spoiled.

haha yes.
but then again, who doesn't wanna go to new york?
it's kinda odd that one would choose to trek out to the statue.
i'd rather see it from battery park.