News stories, by their very nature, are written in third person. This is purely psychological -- reports seem more authoritative if they are written from an outsider's perspective. Well, today I am going to break that rule and write this story in first person, because I can't think of another way to write it.
Yesterday, I had the misfortune of watching one of the most heinous acts of greed I have ever seen.
A friend of mine lost both of her parents in one tragic incident. As an only child, this has left her the duty of finding homes for her parents' pets, planning funeral services, clearing out her parents' house, dealing with financial obligations, and so on. Yesterday, I, along with some other friends, assisted her in clearing out the house. We started with throwing away items that were so well-worn no would else would be able to use them. Then we helped her with sorting out things she wanted for sentimental reasons. The rest, she decided, she would either give away or sell.
Her mother had an extensive collection of art, sculptures, collectible figurines, and dolls. This collection, which she had been amassing over at least twenty years, is worth many thousands of dollars. In the midst of helping clear out throw-away items and trying to figure out which household things could be donated to charity instead of sold, a woman and her father showed up, claiming to be a "friend of your mother's." She said she wanted to buy some of her friend's collectibles.
These two people picked through the house with a fine-toothed comb, carelessly tripping over people who were sitting on the floor sobbing, never offering a comforting word to anyone, just grabbing, grabbing, grabbing everything that wasn't nailed down. They packed up literally dozens of Armani sculptures, some valued at over $1,000, and Lennox figurines, many valued at several hundred dollars. Eventually, they started checking labels and were picking up anything not made in China. Two carloads later, they decided they didn't have enough room for everything they wanted. The woman called her mother and invited her to go through her "friend's" things. This woman was equally greedy, pulling paintings off the wall, and arguing about wanting to pay lower prices than what my friend was willing to sell them for, despite being valued at several hundred dollars each. My friend had also put several things on the side, stating that she either wanted to keep them herself or give them to friends of hers. That garnered an argument, too.
By the end of the night, these people had easily packed over $10,000 worth of collectible items (and electronics, and video games, and furniture) into their three cars, with little regard for what anyone else may have wanted. (The woman's mother also had the audacity to ask my friend when she would be having a garage sale to sell the rest of her mother's possessions.) The final offer for the entire collection -- $900.00. While I'm sure they may keep some of it, anyone who buys such an extensive collection and pays less than 10% of what it is worth is surely going to turn around and sell it for a profit. A profit that was not meant to be theirs in the first place.
At one point during the evening, I confronted my friend privately and asked her, "Are these people taking advantage of you? Do you want me to say something?" She just looked at me, totally overwhelmed and exhausted with grief, and said, "I just want to get rid of it." It was only later in the evening, when things settled down, that she said, "I hope they don't come back" and we realized the full extent of everything they had taken and how much money my friend lost in this "deal."
My friend is still trying to put herself through college and works a job in which she gets paid just barely above minimum wage. She lives in a studio apartment because that's all she can afford. She just lost both of her parents and is overwhelmed with responsibility and weary from grief. These opportunistic vultures saw how vulnerable my friend was and robbed her blind, fully knowing what the situation was, and fully knowing what they were "buying" and what they could get away with.
At this point, you're probably wondering why I would post this type of story in a politics column. Why? Because this one night of nauseating greed perfectly encapsulated everything that is wrong in our society today.
Poor or even middle class people (the few that are left, anyway) don't usually walk around town with $900.00 in their pockets. It can reasonably be assumed that these people are at least somewhat well-off. They could have afforded to pay more for what they took from their "friend's" daughter. They knew the whole situation. They could have done more to give her a fair price and -- in the bigger picture -- help her keep a roof over her head. But instead, they saw the desperation, grief, and vulnerability on my friend's face and knew she couldn't think rationally. It was the perfect opportunity for them to capitalize on her family's tragedy.
There will probably be someone who will rationalize their actions. There will be someone who will put the blame on my friend, or perhaps me for not defending her when I had already asked if those people were taking advantage of her. She should have put it in storage and sold it when she was able to think clearly. She should have watched them more carefully. She should have spoken up. She should have told them to leave. She should have done more to defend herself. Sure, sure. But chew on this: It can't be her fault if she shouldn't have had to defend herself in the first place.
So many people are facing this situation on a larger scale. Banks were deregulated, foreclosed on people who lost their jobs, and threw them out on the street. People who could afford it bought those foreclosed homes and resold them for a profit. Does that sound vaguely familiar?
And we really have to ask why the middle class is disappearing and why the income gap gets larger every day?
Let's face it: The economy will not change until humans learn how to be humane. Taking advantage of someone else's misfortune is perfectly legal, but legality and morality seldom have anything in common. When people stop using others for personal profit, and everyone is given the chance they deserve to have financial independence, only then will society begin to thrive.
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