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out of touch
Content Warning: Mental Health, Suicide, Money Matters, Food Insecurity
Anyone who isn't rich can agree that rich people basically live on a different planet, but people with secure finances are not the only people who make out-of-touch comments.
Rather, anyone who isn't all that observant about their surroundings or who doesn't acknowledge that everyone leads a different life might make a ridiculous comment from time to time.
But as much as we know that, some of their comments are still hard to digest.
Preparing to cringe, Redditor Yiga_Blade_Master asked:
"What is the most out-of-touch thing you have ever heard? And how did you respond to it?"
Eager to Keep Others Down
"I once wanted to gift a friend a gig ticket. She was a young mum at the time and she didn't have any spare cash to spend on herself or to go out and do anything fun. She was very hesitant to take it, and it was 100% my idea."
"My other friend who was in her 30s at the time, 'I think she's manipulating you, I just don't believe she can't afford a ticket! I mean there's ALWAYS money!'"
"This woman had never lived away from her parents and was from a relatively wealthy background."
"She also said, 'People who haven't got money really only have themselves to blame for not managing their finances better.'"
"I had to have a chat with her about how not everyone comes from the same background and some people go to bed hungry daily."
- ThinkFish5023
"I ate somewhere nice, we had been saving up for four months to afford it the other day... It had unlimited servings of veggies and noodles cooked however you want, on any sauces. With how expensive it was, we decided to make the most of it..."
"And to be honest, I cried that night because I hadn't realized how hungry I always am. ALWAYS. I had gone to bed full for the first time in like a f**king year. It really hurt my mental health because I am so tired of being hungry, but now I'm so much more aware of it."
- Ryugi
"I don’t know if there are food banks where you live, but if there are, please don’t avoid going to them; your health is important. Sometimes people think they 'aren’t hard up enough' or have other reasons for not going."
"I say use the little bit of safety net if it’s there, and when you’re back on your feet, donate to them."
"(I’m told money is better than actual food, because they can buy in bulk and get better deals than people spending money on retail-priced food; in my opinion, it’s easier too, and they also need money for gas and vehicle maintenance if they pick things up and/or deliver them to people)."
- cicadasinmyears
Open to Honeymoon Donations
"My boss's wife is the child of a millionaire who married an 'heir to the throne' of a multi-million dollar-a-year organization where I was working for 10 dollars per hour."
"Her: 'You, where are you planning on taking your honeymoon when you get married?'"
"Me: 'I dunno, a week on the beach or maybe a quiet cabin in the mountains.'"
"Her: 'Pfff. No one will ever marry you if you refuse to take them to Hawaii for a honeymoon!'"
- Flailing_Aimlessly
She's in the Wrong Wrong Wrong Profession
"I work in a pet store with a grooming salon. Our groomer committed s*icide and it was f**king awful. Awful awful awful, we had to ring all her bookings and cancel them and tell clients that she died. Awful awful awful."
"One day, a woman came in and asked if she could leave some flyers for her counseling services; I politely took them with the intention of discretely binning them."
"She then proceeded to ask if she could book her dog in for a groom and I had to tell her that she couldn't as the groomer had passed away."
"She responded, 'Well, that's awfully inconvenient for me.'"
"I pulled the bin out from under the register and slid her flyers straight into the bin while staring her down. I had no words, just stabby eyes."
- a_slinky
Well, Bob.
"My mom's ex-boyfriend was making jokes about some of the physical things my mother's body deals with after having four natural births, so I said, 'Well, yeah, she has had four kids.'"
"HIS (I can't stress enough that he's male) response was, 'Well, I'VE had two kids, and I don't have any problems...'"
".....I finally said, 'Well, Bob, it's not really the same thing'"
"This motherf**ker replies, 'How would you know, you don't have any kids.'"
".....Reddit, I had no response to this."
- Remote_Bumblebee2240
That Reaction Must Have Been *Priceless*
"An old coworker won a 'free lunch' for the whole office one time. The catch was that you had to sit through a 'professional development talk' from a 'local expert.'"
"The "local expert" turned out to be a chiropractor, and the "professional development talk" was just him trying to convince us to go to his 'clinic.' His big claim was that if you got regular chiropractic adjustments you would never need to get another vaccine for the rest of your life, especially not the Covid or Flu vaccine."
"He said this to a room of scientists, many with doctorates, working for a research facility specializing in infectious disease."
"If the lunch didn't make it worth my while, my boss' reaction certainly did."
- Em29ca
What a False Silver Lining She Has There
"I was a teacher making $35k before taxes, and one of my student's parents was a stay-at-home wife whose husband made over a million dollars a year as an energy company CEO."
"She came in one afternoon and told me about how stressed she was over renovating their home's 3,000 sf BASEMENT... a basement that was 3x as large as my entire home."
"In my effort to connect with her, I told her I was so sorry and that I was also dealing with some stress, having to replace all the exterior plumbing of my house."
"I added that I was grateful that my tax return would cover most of it."
"Her response was, 0Oh honey, be glad you even GET a tax return. We haven't gotten ANYTHING back for 20 years!'"
"All I could say was, 'Well, that's one way to look at it.""
- wannkie
It Doesn't Quite Work That Way Anymore
"My grandparents-in-law gave us 'advice ' when we were negotiating to buy our house. Note: they are retired and her grandfather was a New York lawyer."
"GP: 'They are asking 400? Just offer them 200k cash! They'll take it.'"
"We informed them we don't have 200k in cash."
- trollsong
All Those Internships and Yet, His Real-World Experience Was Lacking
"When I was interning at a museum early in my career, my husband and I were house-hunting and put an offer on our home."
"One of the interns I worked with came from a very, very rich family (think old money oil baron type). He didn't have to work, he just enjoyed learning history and traveling around to different internships for fun."
"He asked me what steps I needed to take to buy the house and I mentioned our mortgage paperwork."
"He sneered and looked at me like I was the dumbest person alive and said, 'Don't mess with a mortgage, just buy it outright! It will save you money in interest!'"
"Okay, dude, first of all, as a 25-year-old supporting myself, I am not just going to pull $400,000 out of my a**."
- Peg_Leg_Meg
Those All-Important Fine Dining Experiences
"Years ago, I got a job as a waitress in a new 'fine dining' restaurant opening in my town soon. (Fine dining is in quotes, because it was envisioned to be fancy food and service but without the hoity-toity parts like dress codes because it was also a college town with a big "townie" population.)"
"Prior to opening, we did a number of trainings on proper service (how to set tables, proper wine service... stuff like that... and stuff I'd not learned as a server at a busy 24-hour diner in a college town)."
"I was in my early 20s, as was the majority of the staff. I asked a question about the wine service protocol, and a girl training with me scoffed and said, 'Ugh, haven't you ever gone out for dinner with your family?' and then looked at all the other folks training with us like she'd just put me in my place."
"I was halfway through, 'Not to anywhere fancier than an Outback or Olive Garden because my family couldn't afford it... d**n...' when the manager stepped in and told her that not everyone can afford fine dining and that me asking for clarification on something I hadn't had the chance to experience was legit. And everyone else looked at her like, 'What a snob...'"
"She still eye-rolled at me and then got mad later when I performed better and got the good shifts, lol. She didn't last long."
- AreaWoman1
Just Pure Evil
"A potential client talking about their work in an equatorial country: 'We're just about at the point where we can start charging the locals for water, which is very exciting.'"
"I declined the job."
- eastblondeanddown
Why, Indeed!
"My coworker, fresh out of school, was really confused why so many people took public transportation to commute into the city."
"Turns out her parents paid for a personal driver for her and that's how she got to work and back. Not an Uber, a car service."
"She had no idea what it cost, probably never thought about it, just figured everyone else preferred the subway/bus to have a personal driver."
- Orange_Kid
"So Behind!"
"I bought my first condo (one bedroom, pretty small, in a city) in my early thirties. My uncle made a comment about how he bought his first place (a house! with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms!) a year after he graduated college, and how mind-blowing he found it that my generation was so behind compared to his."
"Ridiculous enough when you consider inflation and the average salary at the time (1982 vs. 2022), but even more ridiculous once my grandma told me that she and my grandfather gifted him the money for the down payment."
- BroadwayBichh
The Secret Subway Club
"Many years ago, I was living in Philadelphia. I had a very nice colleague at the office, a young woman from a very privileged family. She’d lived all her life downtown (at least when she wasn’t summering in Bar Harbor or spending weekends at their place in Bryn Mawr)."
"One weekend, we were going to meet for lunch. We spoke on the phone and I said I‘d see her soon. I was out in West Philadelphia, so I grabbed the subway and got off a block from her apartment."
"She said, 'You got here so quickly!'"
"'Yes, I took the subway.'"
"She thought I was playing with her. 'Now, don’t tease me; there’s no subway here; we’re not in New York…'"
"I had to walk her over one block, show her the stop, and even go down to the ticket level, at the subway one block from the place she’d lived for 30 years. I probably could have just told her I’d teleported…"
- ExtremelyRetired
Those Double-Standards
"A friend worked at the Better Business Bureau."
"After the pandemic, the management of her office sent everyone a survey asking everyone if they'd like the option to continue working from home."
"The management then sent a message saying the results of the survey were in and that 90% of employees said they wanted to keep working from home."
"The management then sent an announcement that no one could work from home for any reason. They didn't mention why."
"The head manager of their office then sent everyone a farewell notice that she was moving across the country to be closer to her relatives, but not to worry because she'd be able to remain their manager by working from home full-time."
- webgruntzed
Hope He Got That Meatball Sub Later
"I was in a local sub shop waiting for my order. A guy and his I assume girlfriend come in and start reading the menu. The cashier asked what they wanted."
"Girlfriend: 'Yeah, what’s a portobello mushroom burger?'"
"Cashier: 'Oh.. well a portobello is like an extra large mushroom roughly the size of a burger patty.'"
"Girlfriend: 'So… portobello means mushroom? And your sign says portobello mushroom? Mushroom mushroom burger? That’s redundant. I won’t eat here.'"
"She literally stormed out. The cashier (who I was friendly with) just burst out laughing and said to the guy something along the lines of 'What the f**k was that?'"
"The guy just said, 'I don’t f**king know, man. She gets like this. I just wanted a d**n meatball sub.' Then proceeds to sigh and walk out with his girlfriend."
- zulutbs182
It's fascinating the different worlds people can live in while all technically sharing the same space. From differences in income to education to real-world experiences, it can be so easy to forget that the person next to us hasn't led the same life we have, and because of that, it can be so hard to remain empathetic.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/