When, and this is not a hypothetical, I'm getting to know someone socially, and they open up about the crushing difficulty of paying the bills with unskilled la

When, and this is not a hypothetical, I'm getting to know someone socially, and they open up about the crushing difficulty of paying the bills with unskilled labor, I respond... like you'd expect a decent human being to respond. One who has been through periods of grinding poverty with no safety net, and escaped it through luck more than anything else. If I've hired someone to clean my house? Personally, I pay what a cleaner asks. I'd like us both to leave feeling at least ok: I have a clean house, they have money. If, and I do, I say "hey how's it going?" and I got a response which was about the emotional difficulty of earning a living, I would feel pretty uncomfortable, since I'm engaged, in real time, in exchanging money for services with this person. I'd wonder if I should be paying more, if I didn't tip enough last time. It's emotionally manipulative in context. I've gotten some insight into the lives of the three-person team who does clean my house, without them souring our professional relationship like this. Saying something open-ended like "times are tough, you know?" is plenty to open the door without, and I'm going to quote here: > Cleaners then answer honestly about how this is an opportunity for them and hard physical work is all between them and crushing poverty. Making the person who hired you uncomfortable about the contract you both entered into willingly, and with awareness of the broader economic circumstances and labor relationships involved.