On wealth and whether we should feel sorry or not

[nadinbrzezinski]

about those who have more than us.

Well folks been thinking about this due to this post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7018193&mesg_id=7018193

Over the course of ten years as a Paramedic I got to go to the houses of very poor people, like in we live on dirt floor, and power the TV with a battery and eat a few tortillas for dinner when we are lucky. To the homes of the very rich. One of those contacts involved a family who's net worth is close to 1 billion dollars. You think they are going to lose all their money in a crash? Hardly.

What struck me though was the attitude... in two very different encounters. One was this multimillionaire from very old money. The other was a lower middle class woman who called the ambulance because her husband fell and hurt himself.

Both treated my crew, and I did get in their faces, like if they were servants. Why? Most of my crews were working class, blue collar... to use the American equivalent. They simply were, and book learning, or polished Spanish was not part of their skill set, (and they were the best people I have ever worked with and supervised by the way). But to these two women we had to HURRY, and MOVE and do things that went against protocol, because they were our social betters.

Our very wealthy woman I plainly asked for her family doctor, giving instructions over the phone, to either come over and take charge of the call or we will do what we are trained to do, and see him at the hospital. Well doing that was not advantageous and we took hubby to the hospital doing all our ALS, period. To her credit, she actually apologized and I fear it was because I used VERY CORRECT and high class Spanish...

The second one insisted that we just pick up and run... never mind we had a slew of things to protect him from any further damage. She was rude and she was a pain.

The point I am making here is that being rude has little to do with money. You will see it more pronounced perhaps, in old money. Nor is racism limited to the US or just the very wealthy...

I have met people who have very little who are rude and racists, and people who have more than any of you could imagine who are the nicest people around... money has little to do with it. This is how you were raised.

Now I will make a broad brush statement, because that's my observation, people who MADE their fortune tend to be less snappy at those under them than those who inherited it. There is this sense of entitlement.

Oh and people do need to learn the difference between INCOME and NET WORTH by the way.

Oh and wishing others evil, if you believe in Kharma, will catch you up.

[nadinbrzezinski]

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