Rich people do have trouble understanding what it's like to be poor
Oh man this resonates in a weird way... I don&#x27;t know jack shit about being poor. I grew up extremely well-off in the late 80s and 90s. My college education was paid 100% by my parents without a loan. We had nice cars and belonged to country clubs. Even in my first job where I was only making 35K&#x2F;yr my parents gave me quite a bit of help so it was easy.<p>I have a few friends that are poor... I feel for their issues, I always try and help out when asked, but I also know to keep my mouth shut about problems the poor face or how I think they should solve the problem because my solutions are usually so detached from the reality of their grinding life that it comes off as patronizing and unempathetic.<p>My dad gets it, he grew up as a poor kid in an Italian immigrant household. First kid to college and then he did really well after that in business. He understands it in ways I&#x27;ll never know. He mostly keeps his opinions to himself on the matter but I&#x27;ve never heard him rattle off any easy solutions or tropes like &quot;they just need to work harder&quot; because he knows his mother and father busted their butts and never stopped being poor. It was only when he became an adult and started making money that he could help them live comfortably.<p>My mother (love her) she grew up middle class during the American Dream years of the 50&#x27;s and 60&#x27;s and has never known poverty either, but she has <i>strong opinions</i> on it... always of the variety of they are &quot;lazy&quot; or need to &quot;work harder&quot;, or the solutions are impractical or grounded in a reality that hasn&#x27;t existed since the early 70s. I think my Dad has given up at this point changing her mind as they&#x27;re both well into their 70s, but yea I never want to be like my mother.