Morning," says Laura Steins, 47, wearing a dark Armani suit and take-charge heels. Her blue eyes are lustrous and her skin is golden, and even with wet hair and no makeup, she radiates confidence.
But she's months overdue for a visit to her colorist, a telltale sign of economic distress for a woman such as Steins. The smell in the basement could mean a crack in the septic line; unlike a $200 hair appointment, a plumber will be in the thousands.
Steins takes a breath. Life in this $2.5 million house was built on the premise of two incomes, not the income of a divorced mother of three in a tanked economy. Her property taxes are $35,000 a year, the nanny is $40,000 and the gardener is $500 a month.
Sometimes, I feel like I live on another planet from the mainstream media. I am not faulting this woman. She is a minority after all. She makes $300,000 a year. 98.5% of Americans make less than $250,000 a year in family income, so she is a member of a small social class.
Perhaps my concerns about not getting a pay raise this so I will go from 132.85% of the poverty level a year to 134% of the poverty level so I will lose medical benefits for my kid with a pre-existing condition seem quaint in comparison, but we all have horror stories to tell.
This is another example of how our "professional" press corps is failing us. The readers of the Post skim wealthier, and many people who read this article will relate to this "struggle" as the rest of us grumble.
It's a lifestyle story from the paper that believed "Salons" in the publishers house underwritten by big Pharma, and HMO was a great idea. Sometimes, I think we are doomed.