I can’t stand this person btw, and I don’t think they are a good person.
This family member is a nurse practitioner who I know pulls in at least $150k a year. They are sure that there all sort of people who are working in jobs that don’t require a degree or all that much training that are making total bank. This isn’t based on data of course, just from spending hours a day on Facebook. They will go on and on about they saw someone saying they know a server who makes $50 an hour when you include tips, that sort of thing.
I have never heard (or seen - I’ve worked at a number of different employers and my line of work lets me see payroll) of anyone who isn’t a doctor, software engineer, or high level executive who makes that kind of dough. I’ve tried explaining this it just goes in one ear and out the other.
Knowing this person, this serves two ideological functions. The first is that this person is also totally convinced the economy is great and that the only people who are suffering are “lazy”. Apparently there are just an abundance of high paying jobs that anyone can just have, so this fuels their sense of superiority. Probably no surprise to you all, but this was raging about SNAP benefit nonstop the other week. If there are good jobs out there for everyone, then of course no one needs any help and capitalism is just working great.
But also, despite how much this person makes, they actually think they are way underpaid. I have tried explaining to them that what they make puts them in like the top 5%-10%, but hear them talk and they are absolutely convinced that people stocking shelves at Costco are making close to what they make.
Social media in general and Facebook specifically is such a cancer on society. Folks can use it to just live in their own reality and absolutely nothing will convince them otherwise.
People will believe a lot of things to keep from concluding that the system they benefit from is basically unfair.
I have a relative who sincerely told me he thinks guys standing by the stoplight asking for money are secretly middle class and make more money doing that than a full time job would pay.
(This is why it’s wrong to help them by giving them money)
Ok so why doesn’t he do that then?
Another one that doesn’t actually believe it. They know they’re spouting bullshit, they have different reasons for spreading this bs.
I’ve heard this from many people. I saw a news expose on this once. I don’t know if it was real or staged, but it worked if you saw it and you were enough of a boomer. The homeless people are scamming you, not the news.
If you overcome some atomization, which isn’t easy, you could get to know some homeless people. It’s pretty obvious they’re not raking in money by begging for change.
I had a roommate that did pretty well that way but he was the exceptions. He also had 20 years experience, a cute dog (who just died a couple weeks back RIP) and a consistent spot/consistent donors who got to know him over time. He made enough to not go into withdrawal and cover dog food and some people food, but he was also out there all damn day, 10 hour days. He’s doing good now tho, has a place, has a job, clean from hard stuff
The “Panhandling makes $300 a day in DC” talking point comes from Fox News some 20~30 years ago and they’ve been citing themselves ever since. I’m sure other news outlets have cited Fox News on this topic. It’s Radio Free Asia shit, but for homelessness.
I probably saw that, but being replayed by some other network.
Even non-chuds that I know take it as a rule that you should only donate food directly to beggars because if you give them money they’ll 100% use it on drugs (as if staving off withdrawal was a bad thing). Even had someone tell me that money should only be donated to charities because they’ll actually know how to spend it, unlike the homeless people themselves.
It’s ridiculous.