One day recently, I lost my keys on my way to get groceries, only discovering the loss after I had gotten items that needed to be refrigerated. I was terrified because when there is only one set of keys for the house, the holder is supposed to be hypervigilant about never losing them. Frustrated, I asked the administrator for a spare set of keys so I could both go to my home to drop off groceries, and get copies made–of course, I would make two copies due to newly-induced paranoia. Rather than just go once, I had to go three separate times to have the keys made because the first ones failed, the second ones partially failed (two doors to open), until finally all the keys worked. I made sure that it would be impossible for me not to have a key, and my companion would have a key as well any time either of us decided to leave the house. Surprisingly, while I was on my way to run one more errand, I found the original keys in the middle of the street, which never leave the house now.
Consider all the steps of this little mishap. Despite being regularly attentive, I made a mistake and had to find a solution by myself. Once I found the solution, I made sure that I found a solution for more than just myself, because there was no point putting my household in a dilemma if I could avoid it. Finally, I was still willing to use the old solution if it worked, and I kept track of it so that anyone else who wanted to use it would be able to do so. Welcome to the mentality of most poor people versus rich people, the latter of whom often have the most terrible solutions to most of life’s issues.
the California fires
First and foremost, desperate people must solve problems because we lack resources to mitigate consequences if we avoid solutions. Bribing someone, contracting someone else, and ignoring the problems is not something that most people without resources can afford to do so. Conversely, rich people will generally solve whatever problems they have with money, and even throw money at bad options simply because they can afford it. For example, most rich people will tell anyone still naive enough to listen that the only way anyone will be able to afford to buy homes is if we build into oblivion. Meanwhile, natural disasters are starting to tear apart all the cheap housing that has been built on that principal, whether hurricanes or fires, proving that building a bunch of shoddy housing solves nothing. Solving problems is completely possible, but one has to be committed to switching tactics if certain “solutions” fail, something most rich people are unprepared to do because egos.
Moreover, poor people know that they are better off finding solutions for more people than coming up with ideas just for themselves. Homeless encampments usually have people who stay and watch everyone’s belongings all day, and switch off because there are people going to find resources, as well as people who actually have jobs. People with the least resources understand that they are safer together, and do their best to acknowledge the world outside the solutions they enact. Rich people are constantly looking for the best way to look out for Number One, regardless of consequences for everyone else. For instance, rich celebrities have reputations to obnoxiously rant about how they think climate change is a hoax. However a lot of them are investing in bunkers so that they can continue to extract as much profit as possible without thinking about anyone else.
The main reason that poor people do their best to make decent solutions is because they understand that they cannot escape the consequences. Snide, comfortable people with money like to argue that if people made better choices, they would be rich; someone close to me said–and I agree–that people have better choices when they are rich. People who are rich apparently cannot handle too much strife, and do crazy things like rape and murder people when they are under too much stress. Because poor people are under stress all the time, we tend to run with whatever happens because we lack another option.
Generally, rich people are short-term thinkers who create long-term consequences for themselves and everyone else. They take took much, offer too little, and then have the audacity to look shocked when everyone else is unable to shake off the results of poorly-thought out choices. Poor people typically are long-term thinkers with short-term resources, which is one of the reasons that many are able to survive difficult circumstances, and handle negative fallout. Despite “resilience” being a stereotype, most poor people are resilient, but would choose not to be if given the option. During the next few years, we are going to internationally see the consequences of giving the reins to idiots who cannot do anything but look out for Number One.
Chasing A Dying Empire 
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