Marrying Down

To give a bit of context to the following story, you should know that one day Will asked Jerry "What is a job that makes a lot of money?"  Jerry told him stock brokers make a lot of money on Wall Street buying and selling stocks. 

So the other day Will asked me how much money van drivers make (like the guys who drive the vans that take kids to day care after school).  I told him I didn't really know for sure but probably not a whole lot.  He was quiet for a bit then said, "Well I want to be a van driver one day so I guess I'll just get my wife to do that buy/sell thing so she can make money for stuff like paying the water bill since I won't make a lot of money."

That night at dinner I told Jerry what Will's career plans were.  Jerry told Will that driving a van probably would be fun, and that sometimes wives do choose to work too, but that it's usually a man's job to provide for their family.  (I got a really good laugh a few days later, however, when I saw the headline on the news from the LA Times:  Record number of educated women are "marrying down"  I guess maybe there's hope for Will's career plans after all!)

Obviously though, Jerry's comment made Will think because the next day he came up with a new idea.  He asked how much those vans cost to buy.  I told him (again) I didn't really know for sure but I didn't think they cost very much more than a car or truck.  (Having a kid is a great way to bring to light all the things you didn't even know you didn't know!)  So then he said since they weren't too expensive he decided he would get a job doing that "buy/sell thing" so he could make lots of money then he would buy a van and drive it when he wasn't working, like on the weekends.  He said he would use it "to drive old people around - like if they needed to go to the store or to church or anything."