Ants and Grasshoppers
My wife has an acquaintance she’s known for a number of years. This friend and her husband go on about 3 Disney Vacations a year.
A couple of weeks ago, on the same day we were starting our self-isolation - with coronavirus cases already increasing in our area - they decide to go on an impromptu / unplanned trip to Florida to go to Disney World. The park started shutting down while they were there, and they stayed in their hotel a few more days before coming home. Instead of picking up supplies on their way in they arrived back in town to all the stores being closed, empty shelves at the grocery store, etc. Now they’ve both been furloughed and aren’t working and they’re posting about it on Facebook saying that they have their church and their faith to help see them through.
Why should anyone be helping them right now? This was foreseeable. They should have been able to see the direction this was going in when they left on their trip. Instead, knowing what industries they work in, they go on an expensive trip.
My wife and I haven’t been on a vacation in 2.5 years. The cruise we have planned for October is supposed to be our first trip together in 3 years - but we have savings and we have food. We’ve survived a year-long stretch of unemployment and I never had to sell my coins. We survived all the financial hardship of Sam’s birth without ever asking for help or wondering where the rent was coming from. It was hard. It was depressing seeing all the loss of that hard-earned savings and seeing the financial set-back, but we road it out.
This couple talked about thinking about giving up their 3rd (unplanned) child for adoption because they didn’t know how they could afford it and then less than a year later bought a 3,000 sq. ft. house. Who does that?
I work in a very cyclical industry and everyone that’s been in it for a while knows that we have good times and very sharp down turns and hard times. I still see people that are earning $100,000-200,000 a year, buying expensive houses and $20,000 furniture sets. Then they get laid off and have no savings and a pile of debt and they don’t know what they’re going to do.
Have people always been this way? When did we forget the wisdom of the ant and become the grasshopper?
I have the greatest sympathy in this time for people that live at the margins and who barely scrape by, but I cannot respect these people that I see who could use the good times to prepare for the bad and they just… don’t. Then they cry and whine pitifully.
It is just so frustrating some days to sit here, watching everyone go off and have their fun while you’re trying to pay down debt faster and make responsible decisions for the future - but I know my kids will be fed and taken care of.
/rant
I guess this makes 18 days of self-isolation for the family.
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