my dad, trying to explain the concept of money to me: say you have a sandwich, and i need your sandwich. but i don't have anything to give you. you're not just gonna give it to me.
me: i would just give it to you.
my dad:
in elementary school we had. basically an immersive economics lesson that was "playing City," with different jobs and businesses; it was mostly semi-free time for socializing and selling/buying toys and snacks from each other. one of the lessons we were supposed to learn was the importance of paying a small amount of money into health and/or business insurance, because you had a chance of being hit with the Daily Disaster and a huge bill.
anyway, some kid who didn't buy insurance got hit with a "medical bill" early on, so he was supposed to be bankrupt and have to sit the rest of the game out. the 8 year olds were not having it and spontaneously invented crowdfunding so he could keep playing with everyone else.
kids who don't 'get it' are right, actually
endlessly, morbidly fascinated by how when you're a kid you're constantly having parents, school, religion, media, all drumming it into your head that Sharing Is Good And You Need To Do It, and then you grow up and suddenly they're all like right never mind all that, this is The Real World and it's every bastard for himself
If you do not spend time getting to know yourself, you will end up absorbing everyone else's random and conflicting ideas about you.
Knowing who you are on a very deep and intimate level is the best way to protect yourself from internalizing disempowering opinions from others.
