primarily wants to enjoy the wealth of their date or partner
just wants access to their bank account
The words “primarily” and “just” here seem to me unwarranted. Things can be important without being the only important thing.
I also think you’re displaying little imagination about the usefulness of salary as information. For example, OKC has many questions about (and another sidebar slot for) persons’ interests in/preexisting status regarding children. There are questions about marriage, etc. - lifestyle stuff. Salary is a factor in what kinds of lifestyles are available! Somebody who is trying the radical experiment of life off the grid by attempting to live off barter and urban farming without the use of filthy money isn’t for me, any more than someone who abhors the institution of marriage and never wants children would be for me. Those lifestyles are not compatible with what I want.
Or to be yet more specific: Currently, I live with roommates who don’t expect me to pay rent because I cook tasty food and do some cleaning. This is sort of like being a house spouse without the “spouse” part, and you know what? I like it as much as I thought I would! It suits me very well! I’d like to go on with this sort of lifestyle, barring the insistent knock of implausible opportunity, even after I settle into a long-term relationship. But the thing is—this arrangement only works with someone else funding the operation. People who cannot fund that operation (which funding doesn’t take pockets with extradimensional space in them, just a steady and livable income) are not offering a lifestyle that is maximally appealing to me. That’s a factor, even an important factor, without being a matter of me just wanting to dive into a potential match’s wallet.
OKC doesn’t support that in the sidebar, but supposing it did, that would be… peculiar, but considerably better than leaving it blank. I might ask in a message (if the profile otherwise passed muster) why a description was provided in lieu of a number (unless, hypothetically, descriptions rather than numbers were customary), but as descriptions go it would be very promising.
Just for another data point: As someone who also stated a preference for having that information available, I would find this sufficient. The description would have to be pretty specific, though—the idea is to get a sense of what kind of lifestyle the person’s finances permit.
I also think you’re displaying little imagination about the usefulness of salary as information. For example, OKC has many questions about (and another sidebar slot for) persons’ interests in/preexisting status regarding children. There are questions about marriage, etc. - lifestyle stuff. Salary is a factor in what kinds of lifestyles are available!
For young people, I doubt that “salary now” is such a strong factor in “kinds of lifestyles available by the time I’d want to start a family”. (Here in Italy, ISTM that most relationships start when people are still in university or younger, when their salary is zero or close to zero, and most people old enough to make more than $20,000/year already are in long-term relationships; I’m guessing it’s not the same in America?)
The words “primarily” and “just” here seem to me unwarranted. Things can be important without being the only important thing.
I also think you’re displaying little imagination about the usefulness of salary as information. For example, OKC has many questions about (and another sidebar slot for) persons’ interests in/preexisting status regarding children. There are questions about marriage, etc. - lifestyle stuff. Salary is a factor in what kinds of lifestyles are available! Somebody who is trying the radical experiment of life off the grid by attempting to live off barter and urban farming without the use of filthy money isn’t for me, any more than someone who abhors the institution of marriage and never wants children would be for me. Those lifestyles are not compatible with what I want.
Or to be yet more specific: Currently, I live with roommates who don’t expect me to pay rent because I cook tasty food and do some cleaning. This is sort of like being a house spouse without the “spouse” part, and you know what? I like it as much as I thought I would! It suits me very well! I’d like to go on with this sort of lifestyle, barring the insistent knock of implausible opportunity, even after I settle into a long-term relationship. But the thing is—this arrangement only works with someone else funding the operation. People who cannot fund that operation (which funding doesn’t take pockets with extradimensional space in them, just a steady and livable income) are not offering a lifestyle that is maximally appealing to me. That’s a factor, even an important factor, without being a matter of me just wanting to dive into a potential match’s wallet.
Understood. You’ve convinced me to put my salary back on my OKC profile.
Book you might be interested in: Home Comforts by a woman who takes all aspects of making a good place to live seriously.
That looks really neat! Wishlisted for later. :)
If under salary someone wrote “Enough to comfortably support a family”, would that be enough information for you?
OKC doesn’t support that in the sidebar, but supposing it did, that would be… peculiar, but considerably better than leaving it blank. I might ask in a message (if the profile otherwise passed muster) why a description was provided in lieu of a number (unless, hypothetically, descriptions rather than numbers were customary), but as descriptions go it would be very promising.
Just for another data point: As someone who also stated a preference for having that information available, I would find this sufficient. The description would have to be pretty specific, though—the idea is to get a sense of what kind of lifestyle the person’s finances permit.
For young people, I doubt that “salary now” is such a strong factor in “kinds of lifestyles available by the time I’d want to start a family”. (Here in Italy, ISTM that most relationships start when people are still in university or younger, when their salary is zero or close to zero, and most people old enough to make more than $20,000/year already are in long-term relationships; I’m guessing it’s not the same in America?)