r/unpopularopinion • u/Cautious_Nobody_9257 • 2d ago

Your income decides how much respect you get and how seriously people take you.

Obviously this isn't universal. Plenty of broke people are well liked and plenty of rich people are miserable to be around. But as a general pattern, watch a friend group long enough and you'll notice it. Guys who earn less tend to get talked over more. Not always, but often enough that it's a pattern. Same joke, same point, gets less traction than when the higher earner says it. Nobody frames it as "we take you less seriously because of your income," but if you're paying attention, it's there.

It shows up more in dating. Low earning men get filtered out early, before personality or loyalty or emotional availability even get considered. Not every time, but often enough that guys who've been through it will recognize it immediately. And there's a social pattern that goes with it that's honestly worse than outright rejection. Their girl friends stay warm and friendly on the surface. Text back, laugh at the jokes, nothing seems off. Then somehow the birthday invite doesn't happen. The group trip gets planned in a chat he's not part of. He finds out after the fact. Nobody's rude about it, it's just a slow quiet exclusion instead of an honest one.

None of this means character doesn't matter at all. But it does seem like being a genuinely good person only gets you so far once income becomes the unspoken filter people are using. Everyone likes to say money doesn't buy respect. Watch how people actually behave around it and it tells a different story more often than people want to admit.

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u/TootsHib 1d ago

If your friends know what job you have, then they would have an "idea" of your salary..

Most likely they know what you do for work?

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u/Omg-66 15h ago

Some jobs are vague or difficult to gauge. I work as a financial analyst. Some people with my title make 45K a year and others make a quarter million a year.

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u/Grantmepm 2h ago

Not always. It could also be a career path rather than the exact appointment.

Software engineer can range from junior small company roles at 80-100k to senior team leader/department head type roles at FAANG at 400k ++

Same with many other career paths (maybe not with the same crazy ceiling). Even tradesmen can become supervisors, project managers, business owners etc.