Lexus Self Park
Video of the Park Assist feature in the Lexus LS 600h L.
How Much Money Do You Have?
 You’re asking. Meaning, I can gauge if it’s to gloat, or just for curiosity’s sake.
My family is very open about money, maybe too much so. My dad would boldly inquire about someone’s salary and not think twice about how it might offend (but then he’s Danish, and we all know how they are ). Money is not necessarily important in our family in the superficial sense, but it is a topic that most readily comes up at the dinner table.
I don’t know if people are put off by our openness or not. I think most of my family is fairly discreet when we engage with others, but that’s largely because people are so often squirmy about financial matters. I once knew a guy when we were both in our early twenties and working our way through school who bought a twelve-year-old Tercel. I looked over the parking lot as he pointed it out and commented about how clean it looked and how good it was that he’d finally found a car to his liking. I then asked how much he’d paid for it. Big faux pas, apparently, because he stopped short and primly stated that he didn’t like telling people that kind of info. I was kind of stunned – I didn’t really know how to respond. I mean, we were both poor students and it was clearly not a new Lexus. What’d it put him back, like eleven hundred bucks? Which unflattering conclusion was I supposed to have made with that knowledge? Would he have been equally cagey if I’d asked how much he’d paid for the chicken pot pie he’d eaten for lunch? I still don’t know.
See, when we’re all just starting out in the real world and we’re establishing our careers and finding out who we are, we have a lot to prove. And admitting you don’t make as much as one of your peers reflects poorly on you because, as we all know, the less you make, the less valuable, intelligent, and interesting you are.
But when you get older...