by Chris Tilley

Created on: December 03, 2009

Income, a dirty word with respect to the disparity amongst our fellow people. So many of us are afraid to reveal our income to another that the fear is legitimately overwhelming. Asking for a date at the clearance rack just isn't appropriate in most cases. Why is that? The cultural taboo of revealing your income is already breached.

Why is income so important to another person and their hopes of having an interpersonal relationship with someone else? Many reasons pop into mind at the question. One could be the tendency of people to migrate in groups of similarity. Similar beliefs, similar habits, and similar incomes seem to always characterize groups and circles of friends and cliques. It is a tendency developed in adolescence and seems to continue into adulthood. Diversity is just thrown out the window when money is involved and the most paid is worried about footing the bill over and over. i guess that is why one friend doesn't reveal his or her income level to another after a beer is the reason for the new friendship.

The question of income is a practical one. Practicality can result in a cultural shift. And in today's American fast paced money oriented society, this practicality is so prevalent in the minds of people that it just has been coined a cultural taboo to reveal your income. One can understand not doing so at work where the incomes vary, even among lateral employees. But a cultural taboo is a little far if one subscribes to certain beliefs in the goodness of people. The days of extreme discrimination are essentially over with respect to the widespread epidemic proportions of the past. Tolerance and temperance are more commonplace and the hidden virtues of people more openly expressed.

With this in mind, a cultural taboo could really be an interference to the developing nature of an interpersonal relationship. Let the money issue rise to the forefront in the beginning before their is a problem. Rise to the challenge of it and determine if the new friend is truly a friend or an acquaintance. If money is an issue, then maybe it is not the lucky friend goldmine once entertained in the brisk jaunt of friendship which brought you to the point of the money issue. If money is an issue, let him or her deal with the cultural taboo of slumming. And you take the palace of your person to greener pastures.

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