Sentence:  I sighed , thinking that among other things , people here seemed to be those who would have to cut down if they earned less than $ 85000 yearly ; people who would give their teeth for a chance to get on `` Person to Person '' ; people who thought it was nice to <WSD>be</WSD> important , but not important to be nice ; who were more ingratiating than gracious , more personalities than persons . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)