Do Britons Feel Rich or Poor?

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Do Britons feel rich or poor? Having read the feature in The Guardian ‘Do Britons feel rich or poor?’ by Olivia Gordon, I can agree and sympathise to a certain extent as to how individual attitudes and circumstances help mould our perception of personal wealth. Whether or not these people may be rich or poor in reality, it is interesting how this argument is a ‘feeling’ rather than a financial fact. Upon reading the feature, it is clear that the difference between the rich and the poor can be measured, in some regards, by how wealthy people ‘feel’, although I feel there are factors that determine and condition whether or not someone feels poor or well off. I will commence by giving what I think is the main example of why I think some people would feel ‘poor’. One such factor is peer pressure, or the ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ effect. I feel that especially the middle-class are too weak willed to resist the influence of other peoples spending, as in the case of ‘The PR, 37, Surrey’ where the annual household income is £118,000 a year. While it may be true that some people do have more expenditure and money going out, even if they do have a higher salary and annual income, these costs are for more of the higher end of goods and property, further clarifying my point that people feel peer pressure to maintain a certain standard of living due to their social community/the area they live in, “but why should we have to live on an ex-council estate?”. I also feel that some people due to possessing a higher education “but we’ve been to University, we’ve both worked our backsides off”, feel a sense of entitlement with a perspective that is affirmed on a higher standard of living than the majority of people in the UK. There are also factors that go into making people feel rich. I feel that many aspects of life are affected by how well off you feel. Decisions on

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