I have customers come into my shop all the time that start their conversations with, "I'm poor. I'm on a fixed income..." Why do they do this? Is it a negotiation tactic? Is it a pity party?
If I was poor I sure as heck wouldn't admit it. I'd be ashamed...ashamed that I didn't have a job, or that I couldn't hack it as a...well...bag boy, cashier or car salesman. Yet these people seem proud of their poverty. What is that?
On top of it, a few of them have declared their "fixed income" from being on disability. Funny how one guy had a truck loaded with drywall for his remodeling project and a second one offered to clean my shop once a week. So, why not get a job at a drywall company? Is it the disability or the laws for getting on disability that causes this?
What's weird is that multiple people who generally have no relationship to each other all behave the same way. The same statements, nearly word for word, about being poor and on a fixed income with no prompting from me. The same statements about remodeling or cleaning. It seems there is a pattern here. It's a pattern of drawing pity and emotion from someone.
It's sad. What happened to the bootstrap mentality? What happened to the attitude of our ancestors who packed up everything to move across an ocean with only pennies in their pocket? Where did that toughness go? How did the pride of endurance and strength morph into a pity party?
Sure we need to care for the poor. However, I think poor needs to be better defined. You see, poor is not financial. It is mental. We should have no obligation fund the finances of able-bodied people. It is the sick, and wounded who require our assistance and even many of those ailments can be overcome.
Believe me, I've overcome them.
