Woohoo! No more cleaning!

[Andres]

And yet here this thread is. Perhaps it should be a Backroom thread instead of a Frontroom thread, but the sentiments expressed here are not new to me, nor are they surprising. There are biases that equate wealth with laziness and prejudice, when in many cases that is exactly the opposite. Many wealthy people started out from very humble backgrounds, and they worked very hard to earn that wealth. Most of those people remember where they came from and try and live good lives and give back to society.

I do believe that part of this is due to a US-Euro divide. Having experiencing it from both sides, I will say that Europeans have far more of a negative outlook on wealth than Americans. Europe has an association of wealth with an immovable, uncaring aristocracy. That does not exist in the US. Ask people in Europe what class they fall into, and they will answer lower, middle, or upper. Ask people in the US what class they fall into, and they will answer lower-middle, middle, or upper-middle. There is a perception here that everyone is equal regardless of their financial successes. While those perceptions have been strained here in recent years due to the recession, it remains the common sentiment.

Well, as I said, it are more ideas that have been hammered into me. I was more or less taught to look at people having a cleaning lady or having somebody to do the laundry or whatever household job as lazy people or people with an attitude thinking they are too good to do it themselves. A doctors' wife cleaning her house herself was highly respected, because, well, she was the wife of the doctor and didn't feel too good to clean. It are prejudices, as you say. And they were part of me growing up.

The cleaning lady needs her job too. And who knows, perhaps she uses the money to pay for education and get a better paying job later on in life.