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confession time

After hearing Dave Ramsey on the radio 6 years ago, I quickly came to the realization that I believed a classic American myth: that the car you drive is an indicator of the amount of success you are having. Dave quickly dispelled that by throwing these facts out: the average millionaire drives a reliable used car, the average family in America is one missed paycheck from bankruptcy but has two brand new shiny cars in the driveway, etc. The car you drive just isn’t a measure of your financial success.

However, I think I caught myself missing the point behind that lesson entirely, and wound up in another camp, albeit subconsciously. I started looking at strangers driving nice cars and thinking, “Boy, they sure are putting on a show. How many more payments? Or is it leased?” I flipped the whole thing around, measuring strangers financial smarts based on how crappy and old their car was.

Now mind you, this was a subconscious thing, and for some reason people I actually know were exempt. But Joe Public on the street, boy he was fair game.

I had missed the whole point: I have no right or means to judge anyone based on the vehicle they drive. I don’t have any information about them, nor should I, nor would it do me any good if I did. Judging them based on their car, or their clothes, or their house, or anything for that matter, only serves to hurt me and the cause for which I fight.

It’s an ugly fact that I’m quite ashamed of. Casting judgment on others is a very easy trap to fall into, and I hope I never do it again.

Thursday, March 31st, 2011 at 5:43 pmand is filed under Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “confession time”

1. Tbone Says:
   April 10th, 2011 at 2:26 am

   Blindly casting judgment is a difficult topic. However your snap judgment, your intuition, is usually correct. Don’t discount yourself. Trust your instincts.
   On this topic specifically, most Americans are in debt and buy $h!t they can’t really afford. So you are more often than not correct in you assumptions.