What's the most privileged/off the mark post/response you've read?

[waywardways]

I've name changed for this, just in case anyone does an AS and accuses me of getting DM fodder.

Me and the DC had to flee our home several years ago and we were moved into a tiny 2 bed flat temporarily. I made a thread at the time, saying me and 3dc had had a traumatic move and were very overcrowded and asked for advice on how to store our daily stuff in an efficient way.
Several posters replied helpfully, linking shelving units/freestanding storage, but one poster replied along the lines of:

"Your DH must be high up in the army and you have to rough it in officers housing until your 5 bed detached home is ready".

Another poster quoted the above with "This was my immediate thought too! It's so hard OP, but we've all been there".

I found this both amusing and perplexing because a) I would never have assumed the above and b) it was so far off the mark.

There was another thread very recently about food guidelines where the lack of awareness and privilege was quite frightening!

No. She lost her bursary so presumably is paying more than before and the fees went up, costing her £40k a year overall.

And the 'just 50p' line is nothing more than a foot in the door. if you had agreed to it, it would have been "just another tenner?"; "No, really? Well a fiver then - that's not much, is it?" And then, even if you had yielded, six months down the line, they would have been back for more again.

I may be wrong, but I wondered if that was the deliberate ploy with the couple of charities just before Christmas who were asking for donations of a strange amount, with no explanation why it wasn't a round figure. If I recall correctly, one was asking for £19 and the other for £19.80. Why didn't they just ask for £20? Might it have been so that people who called them to donate would say "you might as well make it up to £20" - to give them the 'in' to say "Ah, well if you're in a position to help us more..."?

Also, do they just take the single donation or do they take the opportunity to try to hound you to sign up for a monthly direct debit? Going on my experiences of big charities, I think I can probably guess.

When they try tactics like this, you can instantly shut them down by saying "So you're volunteering at this and you don't stand to benefit financially when you get people to sign up?"

I doubt they'll be willing to outright lie, as that could get them into a huge amount of trouble; so when they say that no, they do get a 'small' commission, you can look back at them horrified and gasp, whilst exclaiming loudly "But you're taking money from the CHILDREN?!?!?!"

No! Of course not!

I don't know whether she was actually working for Cats Protection or as a third-party fundraiser; but the refusal to take a one-time cash donation does suggest the latter.

They quite happily tell you to "Feel free to cancel at any time if you want to", as signing you up means they get their cut first, as a sign-up fee, before the charity sees anything. At best, all you give goes straight to them and the charity neither benefits nor suffers overall from it; or at worst, they get it all AND the charity has to give them more from charity funds, if they have an agreed minimum commission per sign-up for, say, the first 6 months and you cancelled after 2 months.

Other people care because that VAT is now government funds for services that everybody else doesn't have to pay towards. Why should everybody else pay higher taxes so that people who choose to opt out of state education don't have to pay VAT on school fees?

Chuggers incense me, I usually scurry by them but then you get the ones who leap in front of you, fake grin plastered on their face bellowing "how is your day going" and the speil begins from there. I am pretty good at cutting them short but one accused me of not caring about children and it enraged me for some reason that day. So I let them have it, told them loudly and clearly about how when I dontate to my local foodban I always put in treats bits that I know kids will like and also dontate baby wipes and nappies. Reallly I should have just ignored them and walked on but it made me so angry that they think it is ok to come out with shit like that

Oh goodness, I was in a friendship group where we chatted via WhatsApp a lot .
Some of them were talking about their upcoming trip away , a long haul trip for a fun event .
I said “ oh that will be fun but I wouldn’t have the funds to do this “
one very comfortably off ( rich in my opinion) said “ oh just ask for it as your Christmas gift “
As if my husband was going to spend that much 🤣 we don’t have the ££ spare.
Also mentioned Christmas stocking fillers and how tricky it is to find things for certain age groups.
Her suggestion for inexpensive stocking fillers Pandora bracelet , Alexa speakers 😳 when I was thinking more along the lines of chocolate , toiletries and cute pens

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you said VAT had cost you an extra £40,000 a year.

You make no sense. Those who were paying into private education are saving the government money as the government aren't having to pay for their education. The VAT increase has then ment that more people need to be paid for by the government to receive an education. Does the VAT received even cover the cost of education for all those who have now left private school education? I can't help but think that overall adding VAT to education is a loss making exercise.

Colleague's son's flight from New York was cancelled because of a storm. He didn't know why everyone was making such a big fuss, he simply phoned the Waldorf and asked for his room back......

I've always thought it was a purely political decision. I'd like to see how much has actually been raised and what's been done with it. It's complicated because the birth rate is falling so state schools are benefitting from having extra pupils on roll. Maybe this will save some from closure. However, some of the children leaving private schools and going into state schools are going to need a lot of support, because that's why they were in the private sector to begin with. If they don't get that support it's going to cost us all in the longer term.

But does that include a pension pot? There must be loads of people who don’t have much in day to day savings but are paying into a pension they can take at some point?

You need to give evidence to back up you're assertions, otherwise your argument makes no sense either.

'Your', not 'you're'.

Wow, I have lost count. I almost want to start a blog where I post all the batshit/tone deaf/privileged MN posts.

Off the top of my head, benefit threads always come out with the worse gems. Just this week, someone saying that people who attend day centres can get to day centres, so they should be able to get to work.
On that same thread, someone who lives in an ivory tower saying that the unemployed and disabled should have to live in dormitories with the bare minimum. Pain killers if disabled, and have to work to earn privileges like a TV. Oh, but they said it is not like prison, because they would be allowed out.

A thread from someone on over £100k considering cancelling Netflix so they could afford to live.

Someone on £150k telling someone on UC that the UC claimant has more disposable income.

Government funded steak! Apparently, if someone on benefits can afford steak, then they are on too much money and should have their money cut. Someone wailing that they are on £40k and can't afford steak. A supermarket steak can be as little as £3, so if someone on benefits is on "too much" if they can afford a £3 piece of meat, then what are they actually allowed to buy?

And the faux naivety head tilts and "why are you still on NMW?" to someone who grew up with abuse and in the care system, left school with nothing, and is still proud for having a cleaning job and doing the best with the cards they have been dealt.

This site is full of so much punching down, it should be considered an Olympic sport.

1000x yes to the last point, same with the sanctimonious "I would give ANYTHING to spend/give one last day/hug/phone call with my mother but I CAN'T because she's DEAD..." posters. Ironically they think they are the kind, sympathetic ones for being so loving rather than being so incredibly unempathetic they can't put themselves in someone else's shoes and even try to understand that not everyone has wonderful, supportive relationships with loving, kind parents/children/siblings/whoever.

Yes to the people projecting their own mother's lovingness onto others'! How extremely fortunate to not be able to comprehend that not all mothers mean well and do their best with what they have.

People who have lots of clever ideas of how they'd escape hardship are possibly some of the worst, and they really mark themselves as being incredibly out of touch and having never experienced anything more than a minor inconvenience. "I'd be scrubbing toilets" oh would you? For how long? For how little pay? What if you were seriously ill, and had caring responsibilities, and had nowhere to live? Would you tighten your belt? Yes, that should definitely do it. Why didn't all those feckless poor people just try that, I wonder...

My mother is an evil and narcissistic woman-shes turned my whole family against me and loads of other people hate me (most have never met me,looking at you sister in law)

She made my childhood hell,abused me as an adult and laughed when I went nc with her

'She'll come crawling back when she sees how much I do for her,she'll need me before i need her'

That was 17 years ago and I have no regrets at all-i needed her many times over the years and she didnt want to know

When she dies,I will throw the biggest party to celebrate

Now my darling grandad,id give anything to have one last day with him-that I do get but I wouldn't ram that down anyone's throat

If I hear 'but shes your MUM!' I will scream

Not all mums love their kids nor are built the same

I agree with your whole post, however this bit jumped out at me -

"And the faux naivety head tilts and "why are you still on NMW?" to someone who grew up with abuse and in the care system, left school with nothing, and is still proud for having a cleaning job and doing the best with the cards they have been dealt."

IME the people coming out with this nmw bollocks has absolutely no problem using the services those workers provide.
Usually discussing it over a few drinks in a wine bar with friends, served by nmw workers, after picking the kids up from a nursery, staffed by minimum wage workers, popping to the supermarket, staffed by minimum wage workers, calling to see Granny in her care home, staffed by minimum wage workers, and then quickly booking that weekend away at a hotel, that will be, you guessed it, staffed by minimum wage workers, probably complaining about the price and the service as they go, but no one should work a minimum wage job because they should all be better.
I do wonder where people who think like that assume they're going to actually get these services from if everyone did what they say and 'got a better job'.

Yep, I totally agree! And many of those very same workers were what kept the country going during Covid.
However, some on here insist that those vital NMW jobs are just "starter" jobs, and are for teens living at home, and retired people wanting "pin money". Any adult in a NMW job is a failure at life and should be shamed.

I have two learning disabled sons, and have often been told that if I get them on a sleep schedule then I can get some rest, workout more, get a manicure. All while I’m too sleep deprived to think of a comeback. I men, I quite like my grey hair and clean short nails, my exercise is walking my dogs, my down time is knitting. And I like my size 14 body.

Agree, that’s exactly how it works in Scotland. You were given good advice by the bank manager.

There are some things in their basic ranges that are decent value and very nice (soup, beans etc) and then you have the £6 for Spanish crystal bread or something in the deli section which is outrageous. It’s like 2 completely different shops in 1 in my little M&S food hall - normal aisle, then insane treat aisle.