Know Your Privilege
I’ll throw out the disclaimer that the guy wasn’t a jerk, he was okay, but the stunning privilege was both jaw-dropping and hilarious. He was a guy in college who came from a pretty wealthy family. He never had a job before—which isn’t that crazy for his age and being a student, though I had been working throughout college.
One day he decided to get a job because he was “bored and wanted to see what it was like.” I forget where he got a job, but it was a pretty laid-back part-time job pushing paper in an office setting. A few weeks after starting, we’re hanging out, and he’s talking about work. He reaches in his pocket and says, “Today they gave me this. What am I supposed to do with it?” It was his paycheck.
I stared at him for a second and said, “Dude, that’s your check. What do you mean ‘What do I do with it?’ Deposit it in your bank.” He says, “I don’t know how to do that. My dad just puts money in there. I don’t look at it, I just take money out from ATMs or use my card.” Not wanting to walk the poor guy through such an easy process, I just tell him to take it to a grocery store and cash it.
What he said next made me nearly fall off the couch in disbelief. He said, “What do you mean cash it? Like, they’ll just give me money for this [looking at his paycheck]?” Must be nice.
Story credit: Reddit / Legion213