Okay, this is funny.
For background, start by reading the older entry about one of my junk fax cases, in which one of the defendants turned out to be a sore loser. Now, consider; each of the three people involved paid $250. On September 19, 2003. Fast-forward to March 24, 2005, when the same guy posts two comments on the blog. They are:
this is great. i just stumbled on it.Wow. Think about it. That's over a year and a half. That much time has passed, and he's still bitter. Over \$250. He's bitter about this. Does he blame the sleazebags who took him and his buddies for thousands of bucks? Does he blame the greed that made him buy into a badly run scam? No. He blames me, because I'm weird.
\ Posted by: zach roux at March 24, 2005 02:41 PM
do you still have that plush office in st paul. i was really impressed when i walked in. looks like you have a very successful practice.
Posted by: zach roux at March 24, 2005 02:47 PM
But it gets funnier. So, I figure, hey, $250, whatever, it’s not enough money to be worth keeping someone up late at night cursing an uncaring universe. I send him an email saying that if he wants his $250 back, he can have it.
I get this:
Hey,I don't want the money but my buddy elided could sure use it he\ just bought a new lexus.(The name was one of the other folks who settled with us, and a street address was provided.)
\ Here is his address
\ elided
The humor here is, so far as I can tell, totally unintentional. I don’t think he gets it. I don’t think he realizes that the reason Steve has a cheap little office is that he’s doing consumer protection law, because it’s worth doing. I don’t think he realizes that not everyone would want a new lexus; that we are not all trying to accumulate status symbols to make people respect us.
Here’s the mystery. This guy, apparently, makes over $250 in an afternoon, so we figure he’s making solidly over $120k a year, probably more since his business is successful. He’s obviously not short of money. He’s got it all.
So why is it that I’m the one who’s happy? It’s not just that I scored some kind of victory. I’d forgotten about these people until I was doing the accounting for my ethical money laundering scheme. It’s not that $250 even matters. It’s that he’s subscribed to the System; if you make more money and are successful, you win. You need to “pick up girls”. Sheesh; I just had my 10th anniversary. What do I want with picking up girls?
This is the ultimate culture clash. The things I believe in are just indistinct buzzing noises to him. The things he’s concerned with are just buzzing noises to me. About all I can remember about Lexus is that they make really expensive cars. Pure status symbol. And to add irony, he’s bragging about a friend’s status symbol; I’m not even sure that makes sense.
Anyway, he didn’t want the money, but he’s still bitter about losing it. Not much to be done.
Remember, folks. Money isn’t that big a deal. Don’t let yourself get too caught up in it; it’ll make you bitter and ironic.
Comments [archived]
From: Karin (aka Treasure the Questions)
Date: 2005-03-30 03:05:44 -0600
Glad you explained what a Lexus was, I’ve never heard of one, so it wouldn’t impress me. ;0)