Monday, January 12, 2009

What planet are these people from?

My brief post yesterday about lame advice got the S.O. going yesterday on one of his favorite rants: dumb advice given by people who don't have a clue. And magazines don't have an exclusive on it -- you see it all the time on television, the various morning shows having so-called experts on to give viewers advice on how to save money.

What sets the S.O. off is the fact is the advice always seems to be tailored for one extremely narrow demographic: upper middle class yuppies working at white collar jobs, probably in Manhattan. Example: "If you want to save, try brown bagging it one day a week instead of buying lunch every day."

You know, even when I was in an office environment that had a reputation for loving to lunch out, there wasn't a person in that office who went out to eat five days a week. And what about the zillions of people working at jobs where they have no choice, everyone from nurse aides to factory workers, where leaving the job site for lunch never has been and never will be an option? What can they do to save? Use fewer pickles in their sandwiches? Buy a cheaper brand of peanut butter?

4 comments:

  1. They say clip coupons like it nver occured to us, cut out the lattes as if we all drink them. Give up facials and eat a meatless meal once a week as if we ever had a facial and eat steak every night.

    I am tired of all these highly compensated, blow dried, designer dressed, spray tanned folks with terribly concerned looks on their faced talking about "times like these."

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  2. What planet are these people from?

    I don't know, all I know is that I'm on the wrong frigging planet.

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  3. Susan - exactly. They're effectively living in a parallel universe from the rest of us, and are totally oblivious to that fact.

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  4. I'm with the S.O. especially when advice is given about work/life balance, parenting, and women's work issues. The advice is always aimed at people in management or people with flexibility and lots of cash.

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