I think there's almost always a way to explain-- but it took me two years of dating someone who grew up dirt-poor, with food-stamps and stuff, to begin grasp it, and even now we don't always have the same assumptions about things. It wasn't any big explanation all at once, either. It was a lot of little grocery shopping trips and conversations about the grocery shopping trips and what we did or didn't do while we were out before I began to grasp it.
I was also something of a weird case to begin with-- I don't think most kids whose families have money get brought up being frequently told that the next book you want or if you want Chinese food tonight, we will have trouble paying the electric bill. Even though that was never true, the book or dinner out was often given anyway, and the electric bill was always paid. I have no idea whether this made it harder or easier for me to grasp the idea of actual poor people.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-04-02 01:48 pm (UTC)I was also something of a weird case to begin with-- I don't think most kids whose families have money get brought up being frequently told that the next book you want or if you want Chinese food tonight, we will have trouble paying the electric bill. Even though that was never true, the book or dinner out was often given anyway, and the electric bill was always paid. I have no idea whether this made it harder or easier for me to grasp the idea of actual poor people.