Do you have one?
Work tends to draw out the most interesting conversations, doesn’t it?
My co-worker and I were having a really good one.
In fact, I learned quite a few things about him.
The main light bulb moment was when I realized that he’s RELENTLESS in his need to sway.
Someone may have missed their calling.
It all started when he wanted me to be impressed that a wealthy singer gave her entire crew bonuses.
Ummm, that’s the bare minimum for someone of her financial status. You EMPLOY people who help you be your best. Why shouldn’t you reward their service towards you YOUR goals?
Why is that a foreign concept? He mentioned that, and I countered with “therein lies the fuckery, because it SHOULDN’T be.”
But most important, WHY does the public have to know about your SINGULAR act of “kindness” and “generosity”?”
Right. Because it’s an ACT. Her PR team is great at their job.
IMO, it makes that person seem less altruistic and more needing the world to see, hear, and talk about their generosity.
Lady, it doesn’t affect us, so who TF cares?! That is what you’re SUPPOSED to do.
Yet another example of people needing a trophy for participation.
He didn’t like that I considered her toxic and compared her to every other famous person that we know WAY too much about by virtue of their notoriety.
All publicity is good publicity, though, right? Anything to stay relevant. *insert eyeroll*
He especially didn’t like the comparison I made to that vapid KJ shitshow with the pimp mom and misogynist father.
He proceeded to go on a LENGTHY tirade highlighting those differences…despite not being intimately connected to either party.
Why choose that hill to die on, sir? If you ask me, they can all go up in flames.
He was against that statement, too.
The conversation up seguing into how some billionaires want us to believe they’re “just like us.”
Case in point, a certain billionaire who “lives in the same home his children were raised in and drives the same car he had in the ’90s.”
The same home he shares with his wife and his side-piece.
Who doesn’t l love a throuple!
Steering away from the potential preaching, I don’t care, nor am I passing any judgements.
My co-worker said he would, too, if billions were on the table.
I looked at him in horror. Granted, I know most people would and are sharing for a helluva lot less, but pressing on.
I’ll continue by saying this: my name ain’t Sharon, and I ain’t sharing. There are far too many people on the planet for that nonsense.
Now, I don’t have issues with sex workers. I’m too much of a voyeur for that. In fact, I’ll be employing some when I start one of my dream gigs (more on that in another post).
I draw a hard line at relationship “prostitution,” though. My biggest question of people who embrace and provide that lifestyle is, how will you ever know if they actually care about you or what you provide? And, do you even care either way?
The conversation started to take an even worse turn when I told him that.
He even went so far as to insinuate that I don’t understand what access to a billion dollars would mean for my life.
Pfft. Bro, I grew up with Robin Leach(TM). That was BEFORE Cribs(TM) and other wealth-obsessed shows came into existence. Are you not embarrassed of your late-millenial audacity?
Here’s my take…
I only care about money as a MEANS, not an end. After having to start over twice, I’m kinda bored with the whole aspect of it. And don’t clown me; I’m human. I am entitled to take a few wrong turns in the life I have to live.
I certainly don’t covet other people’s money. Nor do I want to be a puppet to someone’s will and whims. Or be issued an “allowance.”
Or be in the position of having gifts given being taken away.
That nexus of control sounds like the tenth level of hell to me, but some wouldn’t mind it. Many wouldn’t.
I also don’t believe in that “bootstrap” bullshit because the game is and always will be rigged.
I do believe in luck, though, and I understand that most of not all of wealth attained is hoarded because if it wasn’t, billionaires wouldn’t exist.
I also believe that to become a billionaire, you have to dirty your hands and exploit people, laws, and taxes.
Why would I want to enable that behavior?
THEIR money will NEVER be MY money, even if I inherit it through a will or a trust. And that’s an inescapable fact.
That will NEVER sit right with me.
I only need enough money to finance my dreams, live comfortably, and eat and travel at my leisure. I also want to leave something for my child to finance HIS dreams, because how I feel doesn’t apply to him (though I do want him to make his own money, and understand the means/end aspect of it). I also like knowing I made those things happen.
I’ve done the math, so I know the number that would get me to my goals. Needless to say, it isn’t something ubsurd.
In the end, I told my coworker that I did have a price because I was tired of him not accepting my position the way I accepted his. Despite everything, he did have some valid points for his stance.
I didn’t tell him, for the last time, that the amount was still zero.
Sometimes, you gotta let them have it, especially when they’re so dead set in their ideology.
They’ll get it eventually.
I’ve gotta say, hypotheticals absolutely show you who people are.
It also shows you who’ll “eat the rich.”
Sounds like a gamey, stringy meal that’s full of sugar.
Happy reading!
Liz K
Classy With An E 