Are wealthy people less empathetic?

In order to start a productive discussion, the definition of “wealthy” needs to be established.

They generally feel entitled to what they have, whether or not they really worked hard and long for it. They are just better and more deserving than the rest of the useless masses. So, yes.

Gosh. What a shocker.

Anybody who's ever worked in a service industry that caters to wealthy people could have told you that.

Or you could simply read The Great Gatsby. "The rich are different from you and me."

R1 A net worth of over $5M

Not at all!

Listen, we know that people can't pay to heat their homes, some are starving. We feel for them. In fact, we let them eat cake! Who's stopping them, anyway?

Rich people are better at keeping their money so it stands to reason.

Yes, we are. And fuck all of you.

UH Duh, how do you think they got rich?

Would you rather eat a rich man’s mussy or sit on a poor man’s pole ?

You don't get 5 million by being nice in America.

"Growing" body of evidence cited in a 12 yr old article? Were you this bored, OP?

I disagree. I’ve worked with the public for 20 years. My experience has been that the upper middle class to middle class are the worst, nastiest people.

I have met really rich people and really poor people who I would describe as gentle, kind human beings.

The middle class are disgusting to me. Honestly. They’re typically the cheap, entitled, rude, nasty public.

When you see loons being recorded acting crazy in public, it’s usually the middle class.

Many (thought not all) would argue that they have to be that way to obtain and maintain their wealth.

The more interesting discussion, to me, would be whether there's a loss of empathy in anyone who "level jumps." I see it sometimes with newly minted middle class professionals who have some disposable income and a different "status" after struggling through school and/or come from a very lower middle class or less background. And the same with people who then go beyond that level. This isn't universal of course, but common.

People sometimes get very full of themselves after finishing, say, law school or medical school.

It’s usually temporary once the work grind sets in and once they start spending 80 hours a week with people who are just as smart (if not smarter) than they are.

Once they come back down to earth, the empathy comes back.

The modern conservative is not even especially modern. He is engaged, on the contrary, in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. It is an exercise which always involves a certain number of internal contradictions and even a few absurdities.

The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character-building value of privation for the poor. The man who has struck it rich in minerals, oil, or other bounties of nature is found explaining the debilitating effect of unearned income from the state. The corporate executive who is a superlative success as an organization man weighs in on the evils of bureaucracy. Federal aid to education is feared by those who live in suburbs that could easily forgo this danger, and by people whose children are in public schools. Socialized medicine is condemned by men emerging from Walter Reed Hospital. Social Security is viewed with alarm by those who have the comfortable cushion of an inherited income. Those who are immediately threatened by public efforts to meet their needs — whether widows, small farmers, hospitalized veterans, or the unemployed — are almost always oblivious to the danger.

– John Kenneth Galbraith

From an individual perspective, wealthy is anyone with more money than me, even if I have a lot. What I have is the baseline and never enough. I agree that lack of empathy can be found at all levels and seems pretty common in the newly monied upper middle class. Of course, middle class can be pretty self centered and entitled too. I think consistent, true empathy is uncommon across the spectrum.

Having grown up in a wealthy family, my response is, Duh. Is Capitalism selfless, empathetic, generous, or compassionate? Capitalism is everything. Along with "There is no right or wrong, only points of law", one is taught that people are neither good or bad, they either increase your wealth or are of no value. Everything is transactional.

Possibly. The wealthiest county I ever lived in ( located in the mid Atlantic and one of the richest in the country) really seemed to have the absolute nastiest populace I've ever encountered. Absolute scum of the earth assholes.

Though on an individual level I have met some truly lovely people from very wealthy families.

That sounds like a very nouveau riche mindset, r17.

Old money is more likely to teach their children to be compassionate, but no matter what you do, you can’t solve the world’s problems. So you should be careful with your own affairs.

Also, old money doesn’t really fret over day to day stuff and trying to work angles as you describe. The money is just there.

Here is a classic from someone who survived WWII and the concentration camps…… If you are so smart why aren’t you rich? It sums up America !

R10...Unless you hit the lottery. Otherwise, you're right.

R19, until recently, my family owned one of the oldest privately owned companies in the USA. Very old money. The reason that my family still had money after so many generations was that there was no sentiment allowed, ever. The oldest son inherited nearly everything. Girls were expected to marry well. Nobody "worked angles". I am not sure how I gave you that idea. However, from an early age, there were children with whom you could play and children with whom you could not play. Boarding schools were not so much for education as to keep children away form the wrong people and the wrong ideas. Charity was always transactional. One got something for one's money.

Of course all of this was covered by a veneer of good manners. Don't confuse good manners with compassion.

I am an unapologetic rich capitalist pig. I think the most generous gift I can bestow on poorer brethren is the knowledge and guidance on how to replicate my wealth. Unfortunately the vast majority of the human race is lazy, envious and judgmental. They have know interest in learning how to fish, the just want their Mrs. Paul’s served hot while they way Hulu.

How do you think a man like me got to be a man like me?

R23 So attractive.

Old money = We inherited it all do to an accident of birth and that makes us superior to you genetically unlucky trash.

[quote]Everything is transactional.

This is the very definition of “working angles.” I’m surprised this needs to be explained to you.

How do you suppose wealthy eccentrics become eccentric? It’s not from constantly anguishing over whether their children are playing with “the right sort.” That all smacks of middle class anxiety. The anxiety practically leaps off the page.

Eat The Rich

I'd rather hang out with the Royal Family or pre-zombie Bar Bush than the King and Queen of Versailles and their trashy brood.

[quote] There is a growing body of research

It has recently come to my attention…

I disagree.

Truly wealthy just don't live the same existence as us. It's hard to be empathetic about some you know nothing about it. However, in my work I have interacted with truly wealthy people who want to do the right thing. Now whether that involves some metaphysical right thing vs. whether some Joe Schmoe or Ni'SiKwanesha overworked employee at some establishment has to do something they don't want to do-right is another thing.

It takes nothing for the truly wealthy to be empathetic as it takes nothing away from them. They have everything.

R12 has it right - [quote] The middle class are disgusting to me. Honestly. They’re typically the cheap, entitled, rude, nasty public.

They want the moon for nothing, because they are the "think they are wealthy."

I'd say for the most part, yes. They're about me-me-me, and like to hoard money and resources in a way that can come across as penny-pinching and stingy.

I guess that's why they're the ones with big money though!

Three years into my 50’s, I feel like I made some headway and am living comfortably- own my home, new car, trips. Here’s what I notice-

The wealthy can’t engage in conversation about being poor or mired in problems, someone who is very successful doesn’t see life that way.

You cannot talk about all your troubles, problems, how tight money is- because then it becomes your prophecy. Thoughts, words and actions become your reality. Many poor people are so hard wired into their predicament, NO amount of convincing can pull them out. It’s an automatic reaction learned and repeated over and over again. Even if you gave them a pile of money, it wouldn’t change them. Even if you put opportunity in their path, they forget, sleep in late, or don’t want it bad enough to change old habits. I came from a broken home and my mother was LAZY. Not only lazy, but quick to blame others for her own bad decisions or inaction.

The truly wealthy and kind people live with gratitude, in a world of opportunity and seeking solutions. Even when the cards seem down, they’re able to see potential and are willing to work for it. Not everyone, though.

That said, though, I think we’ll see lots of change soon because it’s becoming ridiculous!

Let's talk about people about whom we know nothing.

the rich are selfish assholes, really, for the most part. I suppose it's only in the U.S. where the rich are seen as godly gifts to all that this would be a mystery. Of course the rich are selfish cunts. It's how you get and stay rich in this society. But more than that, an entire religion of worshiping wealth and the wealthy has grown up in this stupid country. It's pathetic, and it's why pretty much nothing will happen to rein it in until the final, bloody collapse of it all.

[quote] the rich are selfish assholes, really, for the most part.

When you say 'really', do you mean truly really or really really?

I mean for reals, r36.

R15 John Kenneth Galbraith is long dead

R33 nailed it.

As an immigrant who grew up around other immigrants, unfortunately the vision you see is the vision you get. I'm considered a "sell out" but I am comfortable today and try to be empathetic in a world where, honestly, people are so angry and resentful that even your empathy upsets them.

Meanwhile, the kids and people who I grew up with, all broken and bitter.

I know some old money families in our city. They quietly give a lot of money to all sorts of organizations. They may not empathize with people who are struggling, they have no idea how that feels, but they want to do their part in relieving them.

Maybe that's the difference between old money and new.

It takes so much hard work to get ahead. I became a millionaire in my 30s. Lost it all and now in my 50s have become a millionaire again. I always wanted to be a millionaire. Being poor was never an option. It's all in your internal will. I've made my money being ethical. I have empathy for others but even at this age I still don't know or understand the hardships of others not like me. Everyone in the USA has a chance. You have to find a story different than the one you were born into. I think it's true that the people you surround yourself with either help you to raise yourself up or they bring you down into failure. I drop shitty people the minute I realize they lack my values. If they lack my world view I am suspicious and watch their actions. Values, virtue and believing in a just world have helped me with my success. The world is a horrible place but you make your life heaven on earth and deal positively with the good and bad.

great, cool, good for you r39. Now try not to vote like a complete cunt who thinks your tax rate is the most important issue in the country. TIA.

R42 hates R39.

Not everyone CAN be millionaires. That's why people who say 'it's all your fault!' quickly lose my respect. Millionaires are feeding off the rest.

Millionaires don't care about your respect, R44.

Your respect has NO value.

Not really, r43, but in general the rich and the whole huckster mentality of wealth worship have caused a lot of problems in this country, especially in recent decades. We should abandon the Reaganite American Dream and revive the old American Dream. Instead of building a nation around a few lucky rich people, with most others living fairly shitty lives, we should get back to building a country in which the vast majority can have a decent life. There can still be rich people, and they will have a lot of luxuries, but they will not be the centerpiece of national policy.

R45 well, exactly. Which is the subject of this thread - a lot of research finds that wealthy people are less empathetic.

Are poor people empathetic?

Are people living on welfare empathetic?

R48 Why should people working in Wal Mart be on food stamps instead of being paid a fair wage for their work?

Those people working in Wal Mart need our empathy.

They probably need a raise more than any empathy r50.

But the Walton family deserve the money because they have the right mindset!

I hope those people working in Wal Mart don't get a visit from the Oil Protesters.

Those protestors like to create messes for he low-paid workers.

I am very empathetic!

Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are empathetic.

R54 The Walton family foundation agrees. We donate to education, freshwater and marine conservation schemes. We just don't think that Walmart workers have the right mindset so it's their own fault for being on welfare.

OP, you're another crud who doesn't know what "empathy" means.

Damn cruds expecting the rich to have empathy, whatever that means.

R42 is proof that non-wealthy people can be cunts too and confirms my point that too many people these days are angry and resentful. And, agreed, their realities play that out.

Instead of focusing on my voting pattern and tax rates, perhaps you should focus on bettering your situation. TIA.

R58 So why do so many of them pretend to it? Like the Walton family having a foundation with charitable donations.

R39 Unhelpful when there are strong power structures that prevent that for many.

If Hollywood celebrities were any example. 😱

My situation is fine. Don't vote Republican r59. It just leads to more assholes celebrating their assholery. Thanks again, and again congrats on not being like those dirty poors.

R62 is the obligatory Republigan-PTSD troll in every post. You honestly think MAGATs and TRUMPtards and wealthy WASPS think about you AS MUCH AS YOU THINK ABOUT THEM?

That PTSD is poisoning your outlook on life. You sound angry. Give yourself some empathy, you need it.

I can give you some empathy, R62.

I don't care what MAGAts think about or how much. I am asking everybody not to be one, you included r63. I hope that you aren't, and pray for you if you are.

I am angry at the worship of the wealthy and the stupid belief that the wealthy are by definition wonderful people who should not only be respected, but in fact should be given more money as a national goal. That is stupid, and we should stop that shit. We should take the next ten years to not give a fuck if rich people feel overtaxed and instead spend that energy worrying about if everybody else feels underpaid.

New money or old money? Old money is nicer than the new money people. If it’s a lottery winner they’re going to be downright awful and probably on drugs in two years. If they’ve had money for a long time, they tend to be nicer than average. It’s the middle class Karens up to their ass in hock so they can drive their husband’s Hummer that tend to be the truly awful people.

R65 You need to start reading this book. It could very well become your own bible.

Maybe you should read it r67. See what actual Marxism is and isn't. Telling the Rich to pay more taxes isn't literal Stalinism and the first step to the Gulag, despite what you may have heard at the country club.

If you can't be nice to waitstaff and service people and tip decently, you're trash in my book.

The aforementioned Queen of Versailles gave one of the Below Deck stews a tacky ring to make up for her husband's shitty tip. And their sons were total douchebags who stayed drunk for much of the charter.

Jackie also insisted on bringing up the death of Captain Lee's son despite production asking her not to.

R68 take a chill pill. You aren't changing human nature since the beginning of time.

I have known both old and new money. Old money is still into Noblesse oblige and is better. They don't have to prove anything. The people that I knew that were old money made their kids work over summer and holiday vacations. At least the people I knew did. One of them got engaged and the finance didn't know they were rich until the guy took her home to meet the folks at a very large estate in Mandeville canyon. One of the biggest in the city. They never put on airs. The new rich I have met were huge pretentious assholes. It takes a few generations for the newly rich to become decent old rich.

R68; it sounds as though Das Kapital is already your bible.

Yes, clearly anything other than worship of the wealthy is communism r72. Why I never in all my born days knew a man who didn't believe in giving more money to the wealthy and wasn't a full-on communist. No, I never did.

Dramatic much R73?

Short answer, yes.

The New rich got to be what they are by selfishness and money grubbing greed. Old money can be either cocooned and selfcentered or generous and philanthropic.

The philanthropy of the new rich is self serving tax dodging business.

R75 so do something about it.

You have dementia or what r76. What has doing something about it, whatever you mean by "it", got to do anything with this my post at r75?

R33 was your mother ( and many other lower class individuals) the way she was because of some inherent flaw or lack of morality? Or was it due to years of severe stress and despair * because* of the poverty? My guess is the latter.

[quote]Are poor people empathetic?

[quote]Are people living on welfare empathetic?

In a past job at an income support office, I encountered some poor people who didn't come off as empathetic and compassionate. Some were flat out nasty to employees at the office who were trying to help them. There were clients who were always grateful for help we gave to them. The nasty clients would get pissy whenever they didn't qualify for certain programs and they would rip into us for policies and procedures we had no control over. My former colleagues and I would sometimes try to cut nasty clients some slack because of stress in their lives. But, there were situations in which they made it hard for us to sympathize with them because some of the verbal abuse crossed into racism, sexism, and other nasty attitudes. I left that job in 2016 and I ran into a former client several months later. She was of the grateful clients and she made the comment that she knew my job was hard, but she would always appreciate the help I gave to her. I always try to value the appreciative clients' kind words and gratefulness.

Poor people are more generous and sharing.

R31 Yup.

For over a decade, I worked for a small business in a tourist town. I met people from all over the world. I’m assuming the richest people I engaged with were the families from Dubai and India. But I met a lot of wealthy people from across the country as well.

I also met a lot of poor people. People who drove across the country, people from the projects in NYC, people from the trailer parks in redneck towns, I met everyone. The US, Canadians, Europeans, South Americans, etc.

Vogue Magazine has done two articles on the place I worked at, just to give everyone an idea. First was a mention in 2018, the second one was a full article.

Anyways, with all of that established…

I found wealthy people to be very nice. I had my share of social media influencers that I had never even heard of who were assholes but the famous people and the wealthy people I interacted with, were always really nice.

I came to the conclusion that rich people and poor people are the nicest because neither of them understand or care about the concept of money. Take into consideration that what I did was all about indulgence and splurging but the trailer park family would spend as much as the filthy rich Dubai family. Both groups were the most care free and unafraid to spend money.

It was the middle class that were horrible nightmares. They did everything you would think a rich snobby person would do but wanted to pay the amount you would think a broke person would spend. But the truth is, the rich person and the broke person actually debunked both attitude and money for me.

Now I work in the beauty industry with salons and I hear the SAME exact thing from hairdressers.

The middle class are the nastiest! Horrible people. I think it’s because they struggle financially but want to maintain an appearance so they’ll be assholes to disguise it.

None of these perceptions and generalisations about a whole class of people can be quantified or justified.

Interesting chat thread.

R78, My mother “put on airs”. Even when she dressed down, she had the appearance of wealth and snobbery.

She was naive, unwilling to compromise, or even learn anything new. I love my mother, but she is a stupid, uneducated, embittered and judgmental woman. MY empathy is that I forgive her behavior- because like so many- much of it has to do with her abusive upbringing, losing her mom at a very young age, and having marry in an earlier era where women didn’t have the independence and libertarian choices single women do today. We need to stop trying to judge the past and forgive those that are stuck making stupid decisions over and over, because they were raised scared or ignorant.

She’d always relied on my father, bought a massive piece of property with an inheritance, and received rent from another property. She walked and talked rich, but wasn’t- growing up outside Boston, some winters we had to decide between heat or groceries. I started working at 14. All the financial arrangements she had precariously positioned we had warned her about decades ago- did indeed come true. There was plenty of time to make better decisions about her money and she refused all our advice. A construction worker, my father had $800K in life insurance, but she had let every policy lapse, the biggest one six months before he died. My brother and I had to pay to bury him and for her living expenses until she was old enough to collect Social Security.

One day when I visited her and took her to a diner, the owner asked me if she was wealthy! Not one to burst her illusion, I told her “You should ask her!”. She always made broad assumptions about wealth, money and ebullient declarations that had absolutely no basis in reality. After my father’s death, time and time again my brother and I had to bail her out, paying massive tax, repair and utility bills, and for a lawyer to get the squatters out- she never did a credit check, they literally walked in off the street, gave her a $35 deposit and moved in! She ran the rentals into the ground and the squatters almost bankrupted her. My brother finally wiped his hands of the relationship and we put the rentals in his name so he could get a loan to renovate and rebuild. He won’t really talk t her anymore. We had to sell the other property for pennies on the dollar because there were expensive legal issues we were unwilling to sink even more money into and the pittance barely covered years of attention and concern we had applied to it.

She’s slid into dementia, so there’s no amending the relationship for me or my brother. Only forgiveness and learning that wealth, or the reflection of wealth is mostly illusion. My father did it right- he spent every penny, died broke-

But the entire town showed up at his funeral in fond remembrance of him! I met people he had helped out, one guy had lived in our basement for a year until he got dry, another threw himself on the floor of the funeral home screaming and crying with tears in his eyes, Mary!

Terrified of death, my old roommate finally died from AIDS. One bewildering habit he had was always reading the obituaries back in the early 90’s before the cocktail- when we were dropping like flies.

If you want to see the TRUE wealth of a person- go to their funeral and see and hear people talk about the deceased, and how they impacted their lives. My father was never home, he was an alcoholic, so was not much of a father to me or my brother, but WOW! I couldn’t believe how packed that funeral hall,, and I heard dozens of genuine, tearful stories that deeply moved me as his son. I saw a whole other side of my father that day but also learned not to be so quick to judge or categorize someone. Life experience is messy and doesn’t fit neatly into a box!

Far too many posters have lost sight of the question. Sociopaths are charming and nice. Empathy is not good manners. Empathy is not whether you worked during the summers or not. Empathy is not giving to charity (there are always tax benefits or other financial benefits.) Bottom line: Empathy has no place in Capitalist business. The wealthy are raised to exist as Capitalists. If one has not been born without empathy, it is scrubbed away early on.

[quote] Far too many posters have lost sight of the question.

But, R86, the question is unanswerable. Especially as R85 tell us that—

[quote] I … learned not to be so quick to judge or categorize someone.

False R86. You are mistaken, like other of the Michael Moore variety, in not understanding what capitalism is. Capitalism is nationalized currency and socialized credit, as well as government fictions like the corporations, all intended to correct negative externalities of markets. Capitalism does not work at all if it i s not regulated in the interest of fairness, because fairness IS the invisible hand dimwit Scottish fool Adam Smith blathered on about. It's the notion that work leads to reward, and rewards that are commensurate with work. Take this away and you have nothing but corruption. That's why the e conomy is faltering: Libertarians have done their best to rob it of fairness. Now fewer people are making decisions about investments than ever did in Communist Russia, and the results will be the same. We need to fix Capitalism by recognizing its socialistic nature and reorienting government to make it work.

And number one on that agenda is nationalizing oil and gas.

He wrote The Book on them.

I consider Julia Louis-Dreyfus a great example of a quirky, artistic, hard-working and— yes—empathetic wealthy person.

For starters, you can’t portray human foibles as hilariously as she does without empathy.

And, if you’ve ever seen an in-depth interview with her (she seems to do a lot of them), she seems to be a pretty emotional and deeply feeling person.

Her painful childhood seems to have given her these personality traits, and pain sometimes makes people more empathetic. (Sometimes it goes the other way.)

Of course money doesn’t do much to insulate people from painful childhoods.

[...]

The rich are way less empathetic, especially if they've known nothing else. The "lived experience" is the key. If you haven't felt the extreme stress of having NO options because you are in extreme poverty, you will not have that reference point.

It's like interacting with wealthy gay men who live a "lifestyle" that's only accessible with money. They talk so plainly about their lives with no sense of humility or perspective. I socialize with a very mixed group of gay men in my area, some of who are from here, some of who live here part-time and travel extensively. Was at a get-together with a bunch of random gays & other folks from town this past spring. A gay man who owns a cute, perfectly restored cottage in town (which he rents out when he's not traveling or at his other part-time home in California) was going on and on about all the trips he had lined up between Memorial & Labor Day (he mentioned at least a dozen). At one point one of the guys stood up & was walking out of the room with a look in his eyes. I followed behind him & found him in the alley behind the bar bawling his eyes out. He's lived in town for years, loves this place & the area, but he's also been through some very rough times, lives in a modest one bedroom apartment, and is saddled with an astronomical amount of medical debt. He hasn't been on any sort of vacation or even a weekend trip in four years. He just couldn't handle it. Let me be clear: the guy talking about all his trips has every right to spend his money how he wants. He just has this disconnect. He views our area (lakes, cute small towns, forests, attractions etc) as a really nice place to be and enjoy (which it is) but he forgets that there are also gays living and working here, and we are working-class or poor.

His partner created his own awkward moment recently when a few of us were at an event and I was talking to some of them about our house & what a struggle it was (it's a money pit & beyond saving IMO due to many hidden problems and bad work done). Partner & I are also working class & live below the poverty line, have debts etc.. The guy was like, "Why don't you just buy another house and move?" 😬 The conversation veered toward houses for sale in town (not many at any given time) and we were talking about this gorgeous historic mansion that cost $750,000. I said it was really beautiful inside and out, loved the restoration work, and the guy enthusiastically blurts out "You should buy it!" I was kind of embarrassed and tried to explain I didn't think I had the money for that. He was like "Well you'd just need money down, what's 20%? A hundred fifty thousand? That's not bad...." At one point when talking about the interiors he was saying "wow you really know a lot about that place, you must have been friends with the owners!" I replied "Not really, I did freelance housekeeping and odd jobs when I first moved to town and cleaned there once a week." He seemed kind of surprised/stumped. I was thinking "Yes, you're talking to 'the help' right now!" 🤣

This is why the #1 commandment of America is:

WE DON'T TALK ABOUT MONEY. (Until we are truly intimate friends).

As a semi-retired expat, I go to a lot of expat functions in various cities in Europe. It is a logical step in finding new friends in new places. My husband and I are well-educated, well-dressed, and have good social skills. We are open to making new friends and make the effort to retain friendships. The wealthy expats are the least welcoming, least friendly, least open.

Oh absolutely. They act like they already met everyone they want to know.

It depends on how you were raised and your life experiences. Being poor can suck out both empathy and energy from a person.

I once knew this guy (not a friend), who’d ask any person he was introduced to where they went to school, where they lived and who their parents were. Give the wrong answers, and he would unapologetically snub you.

What rot!

R86

Definition of empathy

1 : the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner also : the capacity for this

2 : the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it

Yes.

If I was wealthy. The world would be my bitch. I can completely understand the mindset of the rich. .

Poor immigrant child, now comfortable semi-wealthy. The whole goal of making money is to isolate yourself from problems. While I vote Dem don believe the major issue staving America is wealth inequality, I have grown less personally understanding of what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck. Having worked with a social support organization in one of the poorest areas of the US when I was young, I came to believe all we really need is higher taxation of the wealthy to give the poor more money. Still believe in that concept - but as I get older the amount of time and mental energy I spend worrying about others has declined. Not sure if it’s age or money.

R103 I find as I grow older my heart strings just aren't tugged as easily as they once were. Some of it is just tiredness and cynicism I guess. I'm not proud of it but it is what it is.

I needed to knock on some doors in an affluent suburb to seek information for the 1980 census. We're talking mansions. One guy saw me from a window just in front of his backyard. He motioned for me to come around.

When I turned the corner at the back of the house, I could see he was naked as he was watering flowers. It was secluded. He didn't make an effort to cover up; he meant business. "Let's get this over with." No empathy was expressed, no empathy was expected.

As I asked the first question, he told me I had to get naked, too. I was a bodybuilder at the time; plenty of people had seen me in a posing suit when competing. There wasn't much else to see. So, I took my clothes off. I think I was hairier than he expected, judging from his reaction, but he wanted me naked, so I was naked.

He answered my questions, I put my clothes on and left. Later I was asked what I did to get answers; he was resistant weeks before to answer questions. I told my supervisor what he asked me to do. He was horrified when I told him I did it.

"You were representing the U. S. government."

It was a temporary job, the census only lasts a few months. I didn't care. He never asked me to go out in the field again.

I did run into another nudity situation in another suburb. The man at his front door refused to give the basic information.

"I'll tell you what I think of the government." He got naked right there, turned around, bent over, and split his cheeks. "Now, get the hell off of my property or you'll regret it." Again, no empathy was shown, none was expected. I just smiled and walked away. I filled in the information I could render just by looking at him.