Short day, but I have a package to pick up in Atkins, VA. Managed to get to town 11:30, although another hour to walk to the post office.
Had quite the heated argument with stranger at a restaurant I stopped at in town. I over heard him talking to the waitress that he hated his job so I asked him why keep doing it (mainly to make conversation while I was waiting for my food)…he blew up…could have been the way I approached it or he could have been having a bad day. I was trying to make the agrument just about his job, but without knowing anything at all about my background besides that I am hiking the AT, called me a bum. “I work because no one else will do it, to pay taxes for bumbs like you who live off the government.”
Good to witness the frustration. Even though it was a kind of a frightening experience, it was still an a learning opportunity…one, to better approach conversation and two, to get a close look on understanding another perspective.
He shouldn’t have blew up at me, but he was right about paying taxes. Since, I am not currently working, I am not paying income taxes. Although, he assumed wrong that I had been living off the government.
Now I am trying to justify my minimalist way of living I intend to live because I want to live a self sufficient life style (solar panels and garden sort of thing) as possible…I need to think about this interaction more. Despite his poor methods of agruing (attacking the arguer, not the argument), I may be the ignorant one. Do I really affect other people by not working? I need to take the time to better understand taxes. I want to further understand the frustration.
If you’re invested and earning dividends, you’re paying income taxes. To say nothing of the local and state sales taxes you pay every time you make a purchase. But you already know all this.