I didn't downvote the comment myself, but I do think it's glib and reductionist in a way that purely economic arguments often are. In general I find explanations of this kind of behaviors are often facile rationalizations of things that are mostly non-rational and that are absorbed from one's social environment and then imitated.

> Huh, why is this downvoted?

Because tying it to salary seems pseudo-scentific and rather snobbish (but happy to be corrected if there is solid science backing it). Are rich people generally more direct than poor people within a culture? Not in my experience.

The distinction between urban and rural is valid in my experience. But the urban poor tend to be on the same side of this divide as the urban rich.

(edit: Just to be clear, I didn't downvote it)