If even a teenager isn't intimidated by the amenities in downtown, why should anyone else be?
I think BB's answer hit the nail on the head regarding the wider issue you raised.
But in response to this particular question - that depends entirely on the person's situation and perspective. And I guarantee you that there are plenty of people in this city who don't have an extra $15 to blow on a movie - and would regard your referring to it as "only $15" as proof that you are, if not "rich" then at least doing ok.
Case in point - a few years ago, there was an elderly lady who worked at one of the local supermarkets with whom I would occasionally get into conversations. She was a nice enough lady - but I guess after a few polite chit-chat conversations she felt comfortable enough with me to air her political views, which were quite aways to the Left of my own, at least on matters having to do with economics. I had a few mini-debates with her and she could get a bit fiery. But I always backed out of them pretty quickly, primarily out of concern that one of her bosses might walk along and she would get in trouble for engaging in behavior that was probably not particularly appropriate on the job (I wasn't offended by her stepping on a soapbox - but some customers probably would have been).
Anyhow, one day I was at the supermarket and the lady told me that she recently had to take a day off from work for jury duty in downtown Fort Worth. She quickly climbed on her soapbox about how horrible it was that, on her lunch break, the only place she could afford to eat was at some snack counter where she ended up spending $3.50 for a muffin. She felt very strongly that $3.50 was an outrageous price to have to pay for a muffin, that it constituted "highway robbery," that the problem with the world today was that everybody is "greedy" and somebody "ought to do something about it."
Being the frugal sort that I am, I sympathized with her to the degree that $3.50 is indeed quite a bit to pay for a few pennies worth of flour and sugar. Obviously, however, when you buy a muffin downtown rather than making one yourself from scratch, you are paying for much more than just flour and sugar. I tried to put the issue in perspective for her by explaining that the people who sell the muffins have to make a living too. But she kept insisting that to charge $3.50 was pure "greed."
I finally asked her what she thought a fair price for a muffin was. She felt that, since it was a rather big muffin, it was probably worth $1, which is what similar muffins sold for in that grocery store. I tried to explain that the person who owned the snack counter had to pay rent, which was probably not cheap, as well as the salary of either himself or the person he hired to run the counter. I also explained that the owner of the snack counter did not have the economies of scale and the sales volume of a huge supermarket chain. I tried to explain that the owner might not be able to sell enough muffins at $1 to pay for all of his expenses - in which case he either has to raise his prices or stop selling muffins. But this, too, was only met by more accusations of "greed."
Eventually, with a bit of frustration in my voice, I simply asked her: "so you think it is greedy for someone to want to put food on his table, to be able to afford things such as buying clothes and paying his air conditioning bill...." As soon as I said "air conditioning bill" the lady visibly winced and after a moment she squinted her eyes and snapped back at me: "Air conditioning bill? Who has air conditioning? My place doesn't have air conditioning. Why should I have to pay for his?"
With that, I basically stopped the conversation. What I was hearing wasn't just your typical everyday Leftist class warfare claptrap. It was the frustration of an obviously intelligent lady who apparently had a pretty hard life. Texas is certainly not a great place for an elderly person to have to live without air conditioning. I remembered back when I was 18 and on my own for the first time and there was a difficult period when my only source of food was from a kind friend who realized what my situation was and invited me out to dinner every night on the pretext that he did not like to dine alone. At the time, I certainly could not have afforded a muffin from a snack counter. But I was at least fortunate enough to have had my rent paid up for a few weeks ahead of time and, if things became really desperate, I always had an airline ticket back to mom and dad in Texas. Maybe this lady's situation was no better and was perhaps worse than mine had been years earlier. And while I was always a staunch capitalist even when I was flat broke and was never for a moment even tempted to be taken in by the sort of class envy propagated by the Left - I had no context whatsoever as to what circumstances led this lady to arrive at her particular worldview. Basically, my reaction to her revelation was to feel very sad for her.
On the other hand, despite the fact that this lady was unable to afford air conditioning and a $3.50 muffin, it is important to keep in mind that her standard of living would, nevertheless, have been considered quite affluent compared the that of the vast majority of the people who are alive on earth today.
Designations of "rich" and "poor" are largely a matter of perspective.
So when you ask why should anyone be intimidated by the amenities in downtown Fort Worth when certain teenagers aren't - well, there are some people who, unlike teenagers who usually have mom and dad to subsidize many or most of their basic expenses, have a difficult struggle simply putting inexpensive food on their table and paying their rent and car payments on time. It is possible that you might even find yourself in a similar situation for a brief period when you are out on your own for the first time and trying to get yourself established. I certainly did - and I even remember a couple of occasions when I chose not to go out with friends because I knew they would end up in places similar in price to a Chili's or Bennigans and that I would be basically sitting there hungry watching everyone else eat because I didn't have the money to order anything. Thankfully, those days are long since behind me and I don't think twice about blowing an amount of money on things like 78 rpm records that, in those days, I would have considered a small fortune. I certainly did not enjoy being poor and I do not recommend it to anyone. On the other hand, I learned an awful lot of lessons from the experience - including the ability to at least understand the perspective of a great many people that I don't have very much in common with. And above all, it taught me to never look down on a person simply because he doesn't have a lot of money.
