A friend of mine- a person I respect very much- recently shared on his page a picture of an expensive car with a dick spray painted on it. This happened somewhere in Seattle and the car was just parked on a public street. Someone decided to take a picture of it, put it on the internet, and the commentary began. Mostly in the spray painters favor. Now, I dont need to quote or cite anything specific, but you can use your imagination and guess at what people were saying- thats what you get for driving a car like that, driver must be compensating for something, the proletariat masses are fighting back against the wealthy, ect., ect. And this all strikes me as stupid. And makes me feel disappointed that my friend was one of the people who found this funny. This is what happened- someone vandalized someone elses property. Thats all. Apparently, this was the most expensive car available in the world....and people did make hay out of that. But is that even relevant? Whats the real difference between a car you cant afford and a car you REALLY cant afford? Someone else could. Thats the way of things. And heres what bugs me- were making fun of this guy (or girl) and acting as if they had no right to park their expensive car on a city street. And were doing it because theyre rich. But heres the thing about that person (whoever that person is) and my friend- to me, theyre exactly the same. Theyre both richer than ME. I work as a substitute teacher. I work full time. You can find out how much money I make- its public information on the district web site. Its not much. My friend is also a teacher (in a different district), but he has a contracted position and makes at least 2 or three times as much as I do. I know he works hard and struggles, but to me, hes the same as a millionaire with an expensive car. Both of them can buy things that are far out of my price range and both enjoy a level of financial security that I do not. So heres the question- if someone broke into and destroyed things in my friends house (which I think he owns...), should I find that funny? Because I cant afford a house? Or even a one-bedroom apartment in most of Seattle? He plays drums. Should I laugh if someone steals his drumkit on a gig because thats what you get for having something nice? I get why people get mad at income disparity. Im on the lower end, but you can get much lower than me. I have it made, in the eyes of a minimum wage worker, though I really dont feel like I do. But do they then have the right to destroy or steal my stuff? What Im saying is, that by condoning things like this, we cheapen ourselves. We become less than what we should be. Is it fair that someone can afford a car that costs 6 or 7 figures? I dunno. Is it fair that my friend can afford a house and I cant? I know he works hard, but I work hard too. And so do the paraeducators I work with that make less than I do. None of this is fair. But it seems like we have this anger directed towards people who have what we dont, not knowing how they got those things and not knowing their backstory, and we seem very comfortable rationalizing the idea that the 1% should occasionally have to take some hard knocks on our behalf. The problem with this thinking is that its childish. And wrong. And it makes us forget that were ALL members of the 1% to SOMEBODY. Just like my friend is a member of the 1% to me.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 05:22:58 +0000
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