In other words:

"Rich people's houses exist on land that was cleared of trees, but poor and middle-class people's homes exist on land that somehow magically never grew trees.

"I despise the fact that some people have more money than me. Wait. No. No one has more money than me and can therefore afford nice homes. It's just that they bought nice homes on credit and are on the verge of bankruptcy now. I know this because...well, I just know it, ok?"

Holly, who taught you to hate rich people? Was it your parents or were you taught this by a college professor somewhere along the line?

I work for one of those people who lives in a 'multi-gabled' house. Guess what? He is neither in debt nor does he have horns and a tail. He started his business when he was 22 and worked 12-14 hrs.a day, 6 days a week in order to make a success of himself and along the way he has crerated many, many jobs. Including mine.

LOL those kids wont reject their parents' money unless the parents hold them hostage with it. the kids will either become AF, AE, Gap or like minded kids or they'll shop at thrift stores. either way, they'll still be driving a $30k+ car at 16.

Holly,
Think about it. The traditional American dream.
Be healthy, work for a living, find love, buy a home and raise a family.
Someone else having a bigger home, greener grass or fancier car doesn't make them bad. Just maybe a little more prosperous.
Why chasten them for good fortune?
By the way, I really do like your road signs..very witty.

Oak Ridge is a mecca for new developments and methinks Holly can't afford a new home so she settles for a bit of class envy with an LTE.

I do have to agree with her on some of the stupid names of not only the streets but the developments: Quail Run (Cheney owns a home there), Brooke Meadows (looked at this one and didn't see a brook or a meadow anywhere), Brightwood Farm, etc.

I didn't see her point as class envy but more as an aesthetic critique and a question of values.

She gives no indication of her own economic status.

Ed,

You need to read that letter again. I literally drips with class envy.

Incomplete data, ORR.

I know plenty of people of significant means who wouldn't be caught dead in the kind of development she describes.

Example: Old money that thinks those places are tacky, and would laugh at the idea that the owners outrank them on any sort of class scale.

Or, crunchy libs who made big bucks in, say, software or medicine and want to save the world.

It's even possible to criticize that lifestyle without being able to afford AND without wanting to emulate it.

At some point it's silly to speculate. Whatever her situation, those attitudes exist in social groups that are not jealous of the material wealth on display.

The points she makes are worth considering -- we really do borrow a lot of money and consume a lot of resources in this country -- but the pushback from the commenters that it's our right to do so is also true.

"Class envy" is an expected accusation when someone does offer a critique of the consumerist juggernaut: most of us can't bear to admit our own weakness for manufactured, marketed and peer-pressured "needs" which are really "wants". The overkill and profligacy of McMansion subdivisions is hard to simply wave off. It goes deeper and wider, though. Think of all the computer waste, for instance. I feel more than a tinge of guilt for planetary destruction if I buy any electronic item, and don't feel much better working on a public computer or one at work. Do we really need these things?

Ed Cone is right about the old money tastes which look down on new money; thus it has ever been. That doesn't absolve the middle-classes (or the rich who have prospered beyond their wildest dreams from Bush tax cuts), however, who may not have a McMansion or HUmmer, but who have been coached since babyhood to feel "less" about themselves if they don't have aspirations to an "American Scheme" full of stuff.

Bankruptcies more often are a result of unforeseen tragic events than sheer consumerism, but the precarious paycheck-to-paycheck existence does have ties to biding wars for neighborhoods near "the best schools". Once many had two-income streams, middle and upper-middle class families began to price housing much faster through the roofs, even away from the vaunted cul-de-sac with a thousand gables. Parenthetically, those are guady and make no architectural unified sense. They are today's equivalents of the mushroomy Victorians.

Here are two websites maintained by the author of the letter.

http://plucked-strings.blog-city.com/

http://holly-stevens.blog-city.com/

She does not strike me as someone suffering from McMansion envy.

Like the queen who consulted her mirror every morning to find out if she were still "the fairest maiden of them all," I check my StatCounter account periodically to see if any of my low volume humble blogs are being read. Lo and behold! My Plucked Strings and Holly Stevens blogs suddenly shot up in the past 24 hours! So I clicked on one of the referring URLs and found that I am the subject of scrutiny as to whether I suffer from class envy. Hmmm. I think I'll sit this one out. It's fun to see how people form their opinions, and maybe I'll become a neighborhood legend if I remain obscure and demure. :-)

Holly