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I agree. It reminds me of the story of a low income divorced father barely scraping by month to month, who could have used a several hundred dollar windfall to
by afterburner 14y ago
I agree. It reminds me of the story of a low income divorced father barely scraping by month to month, who could have used a several hundred dollar windfall to try his shot at a trade school or some such training program, but instead spent it on a fun weekend with his son when he had a couple days with him. Long term possibly maybe shot at improving his life slightly, or a good life experience with his son now... it's not an obvious decision. And that kind of thinking applies to far less noble uses of the money as well, such as beers with friends and such.
- hudibras 14y agoDon't want to make too much of your story but the father had a third option: use the money for the trade school and then say to his son, "Money's tight because I'm going back to school, so this weekend we're going camping (or taking a bus to the beach or watching DVDs from the library) instead of driving to Disneyland. Is that okay with you?"
- afterburner 14y agoI can't remember exactly if the money was to be used for travel costs to see his son, or if he was spending it more "inefficiently", but yes, of course there are usually more options. Those options can be constrained by what the father and/or son consider fun though, and when your life is crappy and you're living month to month, you might not have the energy to think outside the box or try something new. There might be a problem though of people thinking having fun = spending.