Jonah Goldberg posts an amusing, albeit arguably fictitious query from Craigslist:
Okay, I’m tired of beating around the bush. I’m a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I’m articulate and classy. I’m not from New York. I’m looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don’t think I’m overreaching at all.
Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 – 250. But that’s where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won’t get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she’s not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?
The response of one investment banker is beautifully informative and brutally appropriate. Fake or not, it’s a funny dialogue and I’m always amused by women who describe themselves as “classy”. I don’t know why, but I tend to picture them saying it in a nasal voice with a New Joisey accent. But at least she knows what she wants – Central Park West.
(What a most peculiar objective, he mused, sitting in his villa and watching the Mediterranean waves roll gently onto the beach.)
I don’t have an inherent problem with shallow women pursuing shallow goals, anymore than I do with shallow men doing the same. Freedom is all about the right to be foolish and reap the consequences of one’s foolishness. I do, however, wonder at the obtuse lens through which these self-obsessed individuals view the world.