Sentence:  I sighed , thinking that among other things , people here seemed to be those who would have to cut down if they <WSD>earned</WSD> 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 be 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:  earn on some commercial or business transaction; earn as salary or wages