Ruminations on what I saw in the grocery store today:
Bad: I saw a lazy, obese woman push her calorie-laden cart to her trunk, unload her groceries, then push her cart behind the bumper of another car and drive away. Kicker: The cart return was just beyond the next car.
Worse: I saw a low-income Hispanic mom with three kids going down the junk food aisle, piling chips and pop into the cart, plus one gallon of milk and one box of cereal. Then she apparently gave a debit card to her young daughter (5 years old? no more than that) and the mom and other two kids went out to the car. The child was in line ahead of me, not even tall enough to see the conveyor belt. The girl knew how to work the card (she's done this before) but it didn't go through. The clerk tried running it; no luck. Finally the clerk tapped some keys (can she look up the balance of the debit card? I don't know) and told the girl, "I'm sorry but there's not enough money on this card." I should've bought the milk and cereal—or, hell, even the chips and soda. But I was so incensed that this mother did this to her child: The mother must have hoped that someone would take pity on the girl and buy their groceries, such as they were.
Worst: I saw myself looking down my nose at these people. Just because my cart was filled with fresh vegetables and fruit, because my credit card went through and I returned my cart. I like to stroke my ego and think I'm contributing to society by doing these things, by not being obese and driving up healthcare costs, by not creating more work for other people. But no. Thinking these thoughts just entrenches me more in this caste society—and it entrenches them, too.