This was freshly borne home to me recently by a remembered incident from my college days. Yes, even this many years after graduation, old campus slights still rankle.

I was planning a party and my suite-mate insisted on moving the couch in front of her bedroom door so none of my "poor" friends would go into her closet and steal her Joan & David shoes.

The Joke was on her. And believe me, I spread this story around. Since I , unlike her, didn't discriminate based on one's parents' income,and there were several kids from wealthy families in attendance.

The punch line is that this little parable took place at Yale.

Yeah, so I was on financial aid and I had a job on campus, but I was hardly raised on government cheese.

In what universe is a student at an Ivy League university considered poor? And who would be wrong-headed enough to say it to her face?

In that venue, I, with my private school education and summers in Europe, was considered poor.

And for a long time I believed it, but then I remembered that money is a relative thing.