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> Nobody had walked me away from my desk to keep me from stealing pens or staples or secrets. Are you saying poor people are always dishonest so by trusting yo
by Grustaf 5y ago
> Nobody had walked me away from my desk to keep me from stealing pens or staples or secrets.
Are you saying poor people are always dishonest so by trusting you they treated you like a rich person, which is bad because ?? . Honestly I'm just confused.
- golergka 5y agoWhy would it be bad? Most of the list doesn't attack the "rich", in my opinion. It just highlights the difference between the subjective experiences, but I don't see as a vale judgement on anyone.
- Grustaf 5y agoWhat is the point of the "nobody thought I would steal their stuff" comment then? It only makes sense if you assume poor people are thieves. In this case it was correct, but I don't think it's true in general.
- SamoyedFurFluff 5y agoNo, she’s point out that no one treated her like a thief. Previous workplaces treated her like a thief because she was poor.
- scaramanga 5y agoThe article is about how poverty isn't just a financial situation but a shrinking of your world view. The author isn't complaining about that situation. She finds herself being surprised by it, and then noticing her own surprise begins contemplating what it might mean. I guess it means that poor people are continually treated as if they are thieves or guilty of something, and after being treated that way for so long, you internalize that judgement and treat yourself that way. Then when you notice a situation where you're not being treated that way, you might be surprised, and feel a mixture of emotions about the fact that you have been seeing yourself as guilty and untrustworthy for so long, and for no reason other than that you're poor. Reading your other comments you seem quite defensive about the fact that she doesn't have any real reason for saying rich people are so bad. But nowhere in the article does she actually say rich people are bad. She's saying why being poor sucks, what it feels like to go from being poor to being a bit better off, what that other world looks like from the outside or, more broadly, how your economic circumstances shape your view of the world and your expectations and interactions in it. I don't know why you would insist on reading it as some sort of attack.
- Grustaf 5y agoI just find it so tedious when people spend their energy complaining, instead of making the best of their situation. At least when their situation is as good as hers.
- drewbug01 5y agoI think what the author is getting at is that at many office jobs that lower-class folks work at, on your last day you'll be "walked out" by security to make sure you don't steal anything, "cause a scene," etc. The implication is that this is something that happens to lower-class workers, but not upper-class workers. And the "lower-class" job comes with low pay, and thus: poor. That's the logical connection I get when reading it. As someone who used to work in a "lower-class" (and low-pay) tech job (outsourced tech support, but the outsourcing firm was in America) - this is how they treated employees when they resigned (and when they were fired). It resonated with me, and I do not think it's a particularly rare thing in "lower-class" white-collar work.
- fmajid 5y agoIt happens to most workers involuntarily terminated, and the brutal and humiliating way most American companies go about it is quite telling.
- sethammons 5y agoI’ve worked “poorer” jobs. They’ve been concerned with office supplies walking off. Never a concern at higher paid tech offices in my limited experience.
- sidlls 5y agoNo, she's saying people perceive the poor as being dishonest and prone to thievery and therefore treat them as a group in a manner reflecting that. To be poor in America is to be lesser, not quite human, really. And our society is built from the top down to kindle that as early as possible, and to reinforce it at every stage of life.