Brin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brin_bellway) wrote2024-07-26 02:02 pm
brin_bellway) wrote2024-07-26 02:02 pm
Like a mirror, you see yourself
[cw: poverty, venting]
slightly tempted to print this out, laminate it, and flash it at people who tell me to donate "to help the less fortunate"
actually, if you check my permit here, I *am* the less fortunate
---
I mean, true, I expect I'm *effectively* above average once you factor in that I live in a rich country, with access to the amount of public goods and community services that rich people can afford to fund
even so, I think this is an interesting/useful counterpart to, like, the every-pain-you-might-feasibly-experience-is-a-1-next-to-the-worst-pain-imaginable thing
some survey asked me a while back to rank my financial situation on a 1 - 10 scale (specifically by Canadian standards and not global standards)
I said 4, because I'm not homeless and I'm not at serious risk of becoming homeless (or even having my utilities cut off) and I always have plenty of food in the house and I pay off my credit cards on time, so that's gotta be at least three pegs right there, right?
and afterwards I wondered if maybe that's not how they were looking at it, and if they would have wanted someone in my situation to say, like, 2
---
(mind you, when the ACX survey asked about my life satisfaction, I said 3, and I was shocked to learn how few people answered that low
(the modal answer was 8. fucking *8*!)
like, sure, absolutely, *objectively* my life is a solid 6 at least! there are *vast* expanses of ways-things-could-be-worse!
but even so...doesn't it *hurt*? the gap between the way things are and the way they could be, like an open wound?)
slightly tempted to print this out, laminate it, and flash it at people who tell me to donate "to help the less fortunate"
actually, if you check my permit here, I *am* the less fortunate
---
I mean, true, I expect I'm *effectively* above average once you factor in that I live in a rich country, with access to the amount of public goods and community services that rich people can afford to fund
even so, I think this is an interesting/useful counterpart to, like, the every-pain-you-might-feasibly-experience-is-a-1-next-to-the-worst-pain-imaginable thing
some survey asked me a while back to rank my financial situation on a 1 - 10 scale (specifically by Canadian standards and not global standards)
I said 4, because I'm not homeless and I'm not at serious risk of becoming homeless (or even having my utilities cut off) and I always have plenty of food in the house and I pay off my credit cards on time, so that's gotta be at least three pegs right there, right?
and afterwards I wondered if maybe that's not how they were looking at it, and if they would have wanted someone in my situation to say, like, 2
---
(mind you, when the ACX survey asked about my life satisfaction, I said 3, and I was shocked to learn how few people answered that low
(the modal answer was 8. fucking *8*!)
like, sure, absolutely, *objectively* my life is a solid 6 at least! there are *vast* expanses of ways-things-could-be-worse!
but even so...doesn't it *hurt*? the gap between the way things are and the way they could be, like an open wound?)