SwirlyPotato
SwirlyPotato

Are corporate employees the biggest fools?

While filing income tax returns I was having a discussion with my mother. She was shocked to see the amount of income tax (12 Lakh) I've to pay annually as a software engineer. She said, "Your father never even earned the amount in salary that you pay as tax." When you were in primary school he earned 2 lakhs / year. And we were family of four (my father, mother, me and younger brother). And when I was in high school he earned 45-50K / month. He is a central government employee and started at 7K / month in the early 90s.

I was shocked to hear this. Because as I kid I never felt poor! I had always lived a comfortable life (according to me). In fact it was the happiest and most content phase of my life.

This led me to start thinking about my childhood. My school fees (Kendriya Vidyala) was 1.5K / quarter (that too was reimbursed by central government). There was no lack of infra or extra curricular activities compared to private schools in KVs. Every week I used to ask for 2 rupees to buy a samosa in early 2000s. Which became 5 later. Same way a 5-10 rupee Frooti was good enough to make my day in the early 2000s. 1/2BHK houses were allotted to my dad based on designation, so we never had to pay any rent where ever he was transferred. Healthcare is also free for my parents for their entire life and for kids it's until 25 years of age. My parents always preferred home cooked food because eating out was expensive and unhealthy. It was max once a month and that too spend on things like chaat, ice cream, kachori and other small stuff. We used to go on vacations once or twice per year in sleeper (3rd AC later years) train even if was 1-2 day journey. My mom would prepare food for whole journey, because buying outside food was expensive. Yet, neither of my parents nor me was unhappy with out lives. We were content.

In metro cities people earn in lakhs and still it is never enough. They are still so unhappy in their life. Once I moved to Hyd, Blr I started noticing how corporate people live their life. Spending so much on alcohol, cigarette, weed, cafes, pubs, breweries on every weekend. They pay so much on Swiggy/Zomato/Zepto for food which is making them unfit over time. They pay so much in tax and get no benefit in return from government. Corporate people don't want kids because school fees are too much and they are mentally so tired because of work that they don't want to handle additional responsibility of kids. In younger days it feels okay but as you grow old you never know how life will feel without kids in 50s, 60s or 70s.

Another interesting fact - a lot of people from tier 2-3 cities leave our homes and come to metro cities in search of better opportunities. But why do we forget the actual reason we came here for? Why do we forget the good old school habits we once had when we lived in tier 2-3 cities? Why do people change and get influenced by metro city culture?

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CosmicLlama
CosmicLlama

People don't come to metro by choice. They come because they don't have a choice.

Who wishes to spend life in traffic in Blr?. Who wishes to travel like cattle in Mumbai local? Who wishes to spend their life fighting and arguing with random people in gurgaon?.

We just have too many people. Too many people crammed into 3-4 cities.

PrancingPotato
PrancingPotato

One always have a choice. No one is forcing you to work from blr. Settle for less but no you don’t want that so you are making a choice and coming to blr and struggling with its traffic.

A person is sum of all their choices.

CosmicLlama
CosmicLlama

In a village there are only three salaried jobs - govt job like bank, post office, teaching - in a school or college. Other options are business, farming or labour.

In T2 cities the chance of having a decent business in higher compared to a village.

For employment one has no choice but to come to a city in BLR.

In west blue collar jobs, farming, even small micro business are preferred and proudly taken up because the gvmt handles the major expenses like medical or education. In our country we are on our own.

So to earna decent amount working as an employee, cities are the only option.

PeppyDonut
PeppyDonut

2lakhs a month post tax in a metro city in 2025 is lower middle class.

BubblyUnicorn
BubblyUnicorn

Then who are the upper middle class?

DancingRaccoon
DancingRaccoon

Completely false (I'm in metro city and average income here is 50-80k). Anything above 1lakh is upper middle class given you are single.

ZoomyMuffin
ZoomyMuffin

I have a very significant counter to your premise.

  1. Your father was middle class. You are RICH. You come in top 1-5% of Indian earners, or even above.

  2. Times and economy have changed. Land and housing has become scarce while gadgets and comforts have become super cheap. Today, even lower middle class enjoys refrigerators and washing machine.

  3. Things have computerised, so jobs involved more personal interactions for you father, now most of our time is alone with our screens. Burnout is essentially boredom not physical fatugue for most.

  4. One prominent difference between metro and non-metro cities is essence of time. Time is more precious for most metro than others, so they try to remain busy. Leisure and enjoyment are conscious. And it is difficult for us and our friends to synchronise our leisure schedules. So most of our leisure involves habits you mentioned and not interpersonal experiences.

ZoomyMuffin
ZoomyMuffin

And that's why I feel that a kid coming from a Middle class non-metro setting grows into an urban metro Rich high-earning member, he faces a dissociation from his life. He will feel that happiness doesn't come as easily.

PrancingPotato
PrancingPotato

Totally relatable but there’s a stark difference - we have became more materialistic. Our or at least mine parents never owned fancy gadgets or shoes or cloths or watches, I own. Parents prioritised their children (me) and had very little or budget vacations. On other hand I want to travel the world, spend freely on experiences so for that I had to live in a metro, earn more, pay more taxes. Even today you’ll find people earning 20-30k and living well because they don’t aspire to have iPhones or foreign vacations or a big 3bhk or a big house. They are happy where they are.

It’s all about felling content.

ZoomyMuffin
ZoomyMuffin

That's how economy changes. Earlier food, clothing, housing, education dominated the economy. So most incomes were dependent on these 3. And most people spent on these 3. And most incomes got over after spending on these 3.

As gadgets, tourism, hospitality have grown, more people earn from these fields, these avenues become affordable to more; and more people spend on these and take it as essential and for granted.

This is true for most people in today's society. We as a society cannot earn more without all these things dominating our behavior.

SillyBoba
SillyBoba

7k a month in 90 is Richie rich. You were rich from start and so you wouldn't felt poor.

GroovyMuffin
GroovyMuffin

If there are employment opportunities in every city, why would people move. We all leave our cities to bigger cities because that's where the jobs are.
However, you are right, we are just chatting happiness in expensive gadgets, alcohol, live events and concerts, ordering food online, etc. its non stop, its making is poor by health and wealth. We have to be mindful and start to learn living in limited means and find happiness.

PerkyPretzel
PerkyPretzel

Such a wholesome post. Thanks OP.
I realise how simple things bring us joy everytime I visit my hometown. No fancy purchases and normal routine feels so relaxing

JazzyRaccoon
JazzyRaccoon

Population explosion. It is necessarily evil that we have to go through. There is nothing controllable except your emotions at a personal level.

GigglyNugget
GigglyNugget

Population control need of time

GoofyNugget
GoofyNugget

Agreed!!
Entering 30s ? 🤠 Early 30s i think most ppl gets same thoughts

BubblyMarshmallow
BubblyMarshmallow
Kfin24d

Is your dad in crpf?
The story looks exactly the same as mine

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