Thanks for reading, Lee!

That is a great strategy when eating out with these types of friends, so you can see the limit of my metaphor. There is no way to tell the school district or other city services here that I want to opt out of some of their more "gold-plated" options. I can either get with the program and make more money as a townie to try and keep up, or I can get out. And these same people wonder why neighborhoods and cities are becoming more segregated, not only by race but by class, everywhere in the U.S. So frustrating.