You don't have many poor friends, then? Or any who are old or sick or both, and don't know how they can even meet their regular monthy expenses, let alone luxuries?
There are lots of people who cannot afford Leicas no matter how hard they work, quite possibly because they can't get the work.
I completely agree that many people, perhaps most, could afford a Leica if they really wanted one, and that they waste their money on all kinds of other things (fitted kitchens, big-screen televisions, new(er) cars, iPhones...) but it is nonsensical and patronizing to suggest that everyone can "Work some overtime or get a part time job. make an extra $150 a week and save it". Many people are genuinely struggling and it is fairly nauseating that you cannot understand this.
Cheers,
R.
First, please point out where I specified that my comments apply to
"everyone" as you
falsely assume that they do.
Next, you
falsely assume that I have money to burn and that all of my friends do too. For the record, all of my friends and 95% or more of the people I know are middle class and/or working class. I
know of a few rich people; I do not
personally know nor do I rub elbows with that demographic.
Next, you
falsely assume that I have never encountered financial or health adversity and that I have never struggled in this life; you would be wrong on both counts.
For the record, I am 59 years old; that's old in my book. I was an aircraft mechanic making $15/hour until the toxic chemicals at my workplace caused me to become afflicted with systemic sclerosis, AKA scleroderma. I was forced out of work because of scleroderma and I damn near died because of it.
After nearly three years of unsuccessful treatment and consulting multiple specialists from coast to coast, my doctors at Duke University wanted to do a stem cell transplant to save my life. The health insurance company dug in their heels and fought because it would have cost them in the neighborhood of $500,000-600,000 USD in 2016 dollars. They knew if they fought for just six weeks, I would no longer fit the profile to be included in the stem cell study. Bottom line: They didn't give a "fork" about whether I lived or died. All they cared about was money.
After that, I was able to get chemotherapy treatment (cytoxan) which saved my life. Every other treatment that I was given to that point did nothing. Due to the effects of rampant connective tissue growth throughout my body, I have had thirteen hand surgeries to try to save my fingers from being amputated, as happens to many scleroderma sufferers. Connective tissue builds up, strangles blood flow in the fingers, tissue dies, ulcers appear and if left untreated gangrene sets in. At that point, fingers must be amputated. A friend lost parts of all ten fingers and all of her toes due to this progression of the disease.
I was fortunate; I still have all my fingers, even though they no longer work. I have lost 90% or more of normal hand function but I can still manage to work my cameras and make images.
I suffer from chronic pain and chronic fatigue but consider myself fortunate, as I have stood by helplessly and watched three people from my scleroderma support group wither and die. One was a 30 year old mother who left behind a husband and a nine year old daughter. Those three people died; I survived. I am both fortunate and blessed.
With regard to my Leica kit - before I got my M-P Safari set I collected, bought, sold and traded cameras for over 23 years. The way I afforded my supposed arrogant rich man's camera was that I traded in two large Pelican cases full of Nikon cameras and lenses along with my 5x7 Deardorff and two lenses.
Today I am receiving disability payments from social security and have a fixed income, 1/3 of which I pay back to the U.S. government every April 15. If it were not for the fact that my wife has been fortunate enough to have a decent job, I would end up being just another homeless military veteran living on the streets - and with no supposed arrogant rich man's camera.
So - next time before you go making
false assumptions about people you have never met - you might consider for a moment that you do not know all there is to know.
You might consider setting aside your closed minded worldview for just five minutes and actually engage in the process called
thinking before you go shooting off your cake hole, spewing ignorant and judgemental
false assumptions - thus revealing to the world your true inner ugliness.
Just a suggestion.
Cheers.,
n.
