In my experience, the people who are concerned about this are the people you should stay away from. They usually don't understand how the world works. Did you know, if you actually work for your money, you might not want to carry $500 in your pocket? Did you know you don't need a million dollars to open a bank account?
I have a bank account and it has exactly $0.04 in it, and yet I've been accused of being wealthy by crustlords based on the fact that I own a debit card. In actuality, I've rarely had more than a few hundred dollars to my name, ended up traveling to escape from my abusive home, and have very rarely gotten money from anyone I pesonally know. Now, I don't have any family, everyone that is blood related to me is dead, with the exception of my mother who is on medicare in an alzheimers ward and thinks I'm someone named Thomas. And I'm sure those two tardnuggets continue to tell stories about my riches.
It's true that these discussions usually devolve into people who spange vs people who don't. Here's a different perspective though:
I don't think there's anything wrong with spanging. I don't think there's anything wrong with working. I don't think there would be anything wrong with the mythical "crust fund kid." I would have a problem with said mythical person spanging, but that person doesn't exist, has never existed, and will never exist.
The real issue here, I think, is that people who only spange feel entitled to other peoples money, specifically travelers. I work when I can and I spange when I have to. I save my money and I have nice things because I don't spend $1,000 a month on beer. Right now I spend most of my time ripping off large corporations. I have a literal pile of expensive electronics sitting in the corner of my living space that I still need to sell on eBay. And soon enough I'll be back on the road.
I like travelers who are respectful of others. Those are the people I help out. I'm fortunate enough to have a skillset that I can utilize to get money pretty easily. Others aren't as fortunate, but they're respectful and don't feel that I owe them anything. I'm happy to give kickdowns to those people. I don't give anything to entitled crustlords and that probably further entrenches them in their entitlement complex.
I think there's always an underlying theme of "woe is me" in these stories, and that's a pretty damning indication of the truth. If you only spange to buy beer, cigarettes, and drugs, haven't worked a job in your life, and surround yourself with people who have a similar mindset, it's probably pretty easy to get high on self-pity and invent colorful ways that others have wronged you. When in reality, they just saved some money, bought a nice backpack, and now people are assuming they're rich.
I've run into a handful of people with these assumptions, mentality and stories. They have all been the stereotype. No respect for themselves or other people, shout shit at people for no reason, say things like "I'm gonna smoke till I die cause I don't care about my life" (literal quote from someone), etc. They were also wannabe traincore, when they weren't yelling dumb shit at yuppies or sexually harassing women, they were bragging about how fast trains were going when they got on/off, dumb train stunts that could've very easily gotten them killed, etc. I don't think it's a coincidence.
Can anyone honestly say they've met someone who told high tales of trustafarians, who wasn't the perfect stereotype of what "oogle" used to mean?
