Jezebel 
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New York, 2:06 PM
Tue Dec 22
61 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/21/09
So, at what point can we round up these guild-ridden rich people, send them on an island, and let poor people hunt them for prize money? Your quarry comes with its inheritance, trust fund, and stock options. Plus any edible portions of the kill.
11/21/09
They don't seem to get much supervision or have to endure the kinds of work-related headaches most of us regular folks do. I'm thinking long daily commutes, performance reviews, and the like. Let's see some of these trust funders take 40-hour-a-week middle-management jobs for companies in Tulsa, Cincinnatti, Fresno, or the like. Now that would be real sacrifice.
11/21/09
11/21/09
you'll see their eyes are just like yours.
Hold their hand,
it will feel like yours.
Listen to their heart, it beats like yours.
...
I wish people could talk about their problems, their pains, their depressions without the judgement of those listening. It defeats the point of listening...
We all get sad, lonely, depressed. The rich, the poor, the healthy, the sick, the beautiful, the not-so-much. Is is too much to have a touch of empathy? (Anyone see Funny Face? Anyone?)
- this might also be an extension of my mother's comment after I told her about Dahl Kim's death... "Was she too rich and beautiful?"
11/20/09
11/21/09
#tips
11/20/09
11/20/09
I try to remember stay grateful because whatever I don't have, someone else has less. But I do ever feel the need to share my complaints, I'll direct them not up the ladder or down, just across.
11/20/09
11/21/09
#tips
11/21/09
[www.youtube.com]
It changed my life.
11/21/09
#tips
11/20/09
It's the Paris Hiltons, with their stupidity, entitlement, and lack of any sort of empathy or personal responsibility that annoy me. Not to say poor or middle class people can't act entitled...but thinking you better BECAUSE you have money is a terrible way to be.
Look at Ivanka Trump vs Paris Hilton
Chelsea Clinton vs Meghan Mccain or the Bush twins in terms of attitude.
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
The funny thing is, my young stepsister recently said to me, totally unbidden, how great it is to be free of her dad's name, because she wasn't sure where he left off and where she started. She had to move across the Atlantic to make that break!
11/20/09
I knew people in graduate school who were given quite a lot (I went to a Big Name School on scholarship) and worked their butts off -- which is exactly what I would hope would be the result of the advantages they had.
11/21/09
All I was trying to say was that I don't think it's much good to tell people to shut up because their problems don't matter. In my *very* small way I've seen how hard it can be to feel like you didn't earn something--especially after working your ass off--and like people don't take you seriously. I guess I'm thinking a bit about my stepsis; her dad tried to hand everything to her while she was growing up because she struggled with severe depression and other problems. Jobs, money, the lot; all of it was just him making a call. Yet it wound up just preserving her depression because it made her feel worthless. I've never seen her happier than she is now, working at a job she got totally on her own, not taking ANY money from parents, generally kicking ass and taking names in the big city. The worst part is her dad will still say things like 'oh of course she got the job instantly when they found out who her old dad was', totally ignoring that she was top of her class and she didn't mention her dad until after her current employer offered her a job. Thankfully she's confident enough now to let it roll off her back.
#tips
11/21/09
Feeling sad about having connections? Does not compute.
#tips
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/21/09
11/21/09
#tips
11/21/09
i don't know, i was probably too sensitive. full disclosure: i'm a rich kid with a suicidal dad. i can't imagine going, well dad's in the hospital again...but hey, at least we have the beach houses! money really doesn't make a difference in that type of scenario.
#tips
11/21/09
I didn't mean, "well dad's in the hospital again...but hey, at least we have the beach houses!"
But wealth provides a level of cushion and security that people without it don't have
For many people, dad going to the hospital would mean that dad loses his job, they lose their place to live and they wind up on the streets
"well dad's in the hospital again...but thank god that him missing work doesn't mean he will lose his job and we won't have a place to live" is a bad place to be but money provides a backstop that keeps it from being an economic disaster as well as emotionally painful
#tips
11/21/09
On a purely practical level borrowing money for cabs to the hospital, begging at the bank and relying on handouts is not fun. I've been there. My 2 cents: some financial security will make the practicalities a wee bit easier and that's about it.
Good luck joutfit!
11/21/09
@SuzyBee: Thank you for saying what I meant better than I said it. My father died of cancer when I was in hs and it changed *****everything***** from being ok and having enough to total chaos. Money would have helped a lot.
#tips
11/21/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
I grew up in a family on the rise, and by the time I graduated, we were on the cusp of the upper-middle-class. I try incredibly hard to never pity myself or my opportunities or my finances because I know I, like she, will never be homeless, will always have someone to go home to. It's a challenge, but I figure that the more you've been given in life, the more you lose your ability to hold a pity party -- and if you're the best kind of person, you spend some of your life trying to help others reach the same place.
11/20/09
Anything I have is due to luck or privilege. I work, but not more so than anyone else.
11/21/09
11/21/09
People shouldn't have to be able to afford a house in Scarsdale to live in a school district with books and desks for all the kids.
Work should pay a living wage.
#tips
11/20/09
Yet, I was the kind of child that would begin to cry my eyes out if I saw a homeless person or African children who needed food on the television. Due to my carefree upbringing, I just couldn't imagine why anyone would allow another fellow human being to go hungry when it seemed like there was so much to go around. As I got older and shifted into my college years I found myself more naturally gaining friends who were not as financially sustained as I was.
I often felt guilty for being better off than some of my friends who had worked since they were 12 and it even lead to a depression when I was honestly trying to find work after college. But I came to realize something important.
You should never feel guilty for the blessings you have in life, but rather be thankful and try to do your very best with the opportunities you have.
11/20/09
My family thinks I'm ridiculous, that I'm an unexpected bleeding heart... But I think I'm weepier now because I have my own money stresses for the first time and I already feel like I'm drowning, and then I see "True Life: I'm Homeless" and can't help but wonder then how they must feel.
11/20/09
That's not to say that your problems are any less important or worth dealing with. It just means that we need to be aware of our blessings just as much as we are of our hurdles.