Short Lived Charity

So I have an acquaintance who has worked for government agencies his whole career, but has made a LOT of money doing consulting work as a side hustle. I mean a lot. Plus, he married above himself, financially, and is about to inherit millions when his O to Q suegra dies.

What is O to Q? Years ago, my friend doing medical residency training taught me the terms. An O is an elderly patient, who lies back with a mouth open like an O. They have a few months to go. Nearer to the end, the tongue hangs out, making a Q. They're near goners...

Anyway, this acquaintance retired from his government job, and thought he'd receive disability right away. Due to clerical problems, he learned there would be a delay -- maybe a month or so between his salary ending, and his disability payments begin. Plus, he'd have to pay for his own health insurance for a month -- for him, his soon to be wealthy wife, and failure to launch son, who still lives at home with no real job at 26.

They moved to their $2M house upstate. Really. $2M. I figure a $2M house upstate is probably a $3.5M house here -- at least. So they're surely not poor.

The dude called me, and asked me to look over something he had written for him. I agreed. I was shocked.

He had put up a page on one of these internet charity sites -- Go Pay Me or something. He posted pictures and asked the general public to send him money because of the delay from his regular salary to disability status.

I should probably have said -- good luck, dude, but I'm too old for inauthenticity when someone asks my opinion. I told the fellow that if his clients learned he was begging for charity, it would be fatal to his consulting business. Who would ever retain someone, who is supposed to project strength and competence, if they were out publicly begging?

He started to argue with me -- his public persona had nothing to do with his private "struggles." I wouldn't engage -- I wished him well.

He called me later and thanked me -- he had taken down the page.

What awful karma. Charity is a sacred thing. We help each other in need. But when people of serious means beg, because they choose not to move assets around to pay for stuff -- well, that gets my gourd.

A few years ago, the kids of some other acqaintances put up one of these pages, to pay for medical treatments. I wanted to call the folks I knew to ask if this was some kind of joke, but they were off on a European cruise. Really? You're cruising the world and your kids are asking strangers for money?

I don't get it -- I really don't.

I feel so uncomfortable being the taker in life. I guess it came from my Dad's pride -- you need something, you do it yourself.

Living in a multi million house, awaiting an inheritance of millions, and asking strangers to give you thousands, because you're annoyed about a bureaucratic mixup?

I guess I AM getting crankier as I age, but this latest really got my goat. On the other hand, as I age, I tend to cynically think I've seen it all. When something like this happens, it teaches me I really haven't.