Man with sick wife, overdue rent, returns $17,000

nimh wrote:

Phoenix32890 wrote:
If something does not belong to you, it is not yours, whether you are rich or poor. Being poor does not entitle you to more consideration for simply doing the right thing.

I'm sorry, but if a woman who's just losing 17 grand in a cab responds to the impoverished, indebted, life crisis-facing cabbie driver being honest enough to return it by rewarding him with thirty-two measly dollars, she's one hell of a stingy b!tch. With apparently not a hint of a clue of what kind of lives people harder up than her lead.

what if that money was not hers? But her bosses?
Or the down payment on a company?
Or her own home?

Why should she short change someone else for her own mistake?

Would you say that about me, if I lost 10,000 and could only afford to tip someone 20 for replacing it?
I dont own 10,000, and giving a 32 dollar tip would hurt.

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FreeDuck wrote:

And the article did say that the measly 32 dollars was several times what the cabbie makes in a day.

I sort of find it impossible to think that a cabbie lives on less then 30.00 a day.

that....... is sad

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FreeDuck wrote:

However, I'm not going to assume that the woman was rich because she had 17000 in cash.

Ehm, in the Philippines, even having 17,000 $ at hand at any point in your life, for any reason, would make you rich, yes.

The average Philippino household, as a whole, doesnt make that much in seven years.

So unless we're talking about the exceedingly unlikely scenario where someone was just happening to bring her whole household's entire life's savings to the bank, you can pretty safely assume that the woman was rich, yeah.

The average income in the Philippines is about $200 a month (quickly calculated from a 1997 gov report and the 2002 exchange rate given by the CIA world factbook). This guy, for example, if he made 1/7th of $32 a day, was making $137 a month. Thats $1,600 a year. The cash she dropped in his motorcycle cab amounted to what he would have to work for more than ten years for.

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shewolfnm wrote:

what if that money was not hers? But her bosses?

Possible. Though wouldnt you think then that her bosses should be even more able to give a little bit more than that?

shewolfnm wrote:

Or the down payment on a company?
Or her own home?

Sorry, but if she had 17 grand to pay as a down payment for a house of her own, that would make her very rich to your average Philippino. If she had the kind of money to put up for a house that your average Philippino could only dream about, she surely should have more than 32 bucks to give to the honest finder.

I mean, seriously - 32 bucks - that was 0,2% of the money she'd just assumed to have lost forever. Thats pretty effin stingy.

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shewolfnm wrote:

FreeDuck wrote:
And the article did say that the measly 32 dollars was several times what the cabbie makes in a day.

I sort of find it impossible to think that a cabbie lives on less then 30.00 a day.

that....... is sad

Huh?? There are people (families!) here in the US that live on less than $30 a day!!
No offense, but have you been living under a rock?

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happycat wrote:

shewolfnm wrote:
FreeDuck wrote:
And the article did say that the measly 32 dollars was several times what the cabbie makes in a day.

I sort of find it impossible to think that a cabbie lives on less then 30.00 a day.

that....... is sad

Huh?? There are people (families!) here in the US that live on less than $30 a day!!
No offense, but have you been living under a rock?

No.
In fact, my last days work was 42.00

I dont live under a rock. Rolling Eyes

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From the article and the first post: Boc, 45, said he was struggling financially because his wife was taken to a hospital the same day he found the money, and they had unpaid rent.

We all know how the media twists the truth. All this says is that he is struggling financially. Aren't we all? And his wife was taken to the hospital; for all we know it could be something minor, we don't have much information.

We started out praising the man for returning found cash, and proceeded to this point where we're condemning the bag's owner for ONLY rewarding the man with 7 times his daily earnings.

Geesh.

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nimh wrote:

shewolfnm wrote:
what if that money was not hers? But her bosses?

Possible. Though wouldnt you think then that her bosses should be even more able to give a little bit more than that?

shewolfnm wrote:
Or the down payment on a company?
Or her own home?

Sorry, but if she had 17 grand to pay as a down payment for a house of her own, that would make her very rich to your average Philippino. If she had the kind of money to put up for a house that your average Philippino could only dream about, she surely should have more than 32 bucks to give to the honest finder.

I mean, seriously - 32 bucks - that was 0,2% of the money she'd just assumed to have lost forever. Thats pretty effin stingy.

I agree.
Im not , in anyway trying to defend her 100%.

But, if he returned it quickly , there might not have been enough time for her to report it to her boss.

Quite frankly, if it would have been me and I had to tell someone I just lost thier 17000 dollars, I would be hesitant to speak up and would run to the police first Laughing

But im chicken like that..

I do think that
3 was chincy.. but then again.. as phoenix said, being poor doesnt earn you the right to someone elses money.

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shewolfnm wrote:

happycat wrote:
shewolfnm wrote:
FreeDuck wrote:
And the article did say that the measly 32 dollars was several times what the cabbie makes in a day.

I sort of find it impossible to think that a cabbie lives on less then 30.00 a day.

that....... is sad

Huh?? There are people (families!) here in the US that live on less than $30 a day!!
No offense, but have you been living under a rock?

No.
In fact, my last days work was 42.00

I dont live under a rock.

Then I don't understand how you find it impossible to believe that a cabbie in the Phillipines lives on less than $30 a day.

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I find it impossible because I KNOW how damn hard it is.

I find it impossible to BELIEVE that people CAN live on less then 30.00 a day in ANY country because that is so little money, you cant stay above water like that .
I find it impossible for ANY family to function on that little money.

as i said..
it is sad.

Im not saying " IMPOSSIBLE" as if he is lying.
Im saying IMPOSSIBLE because it is.
Look at his family.
he cant even pay rent.
living on less then 30.00 a day IS impossible.

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shewolfnm wrote:

but then again.. as phoenix said, being poor doesnt earn you the right to someone elses money.

I think this goes back to a much deeper question..

Not too long ago, I posted a thread called "Instinctive anger at the wealthy and/or wealth contrasts". Discussion soon focused mostly on specifics like what could be said, or could not be said, reasonably, about the persons I described as having just passed by. Then it went on to the pros and cons of various tax systems.

But I was disappointed that a fundamental underlying point that I made at some point went ignored. It was probably just because it was the fag end of the thread anyway, and plus, my post had been pretty damn long. But I thought it was a pity anyway - and it's definitely part of what's playing somewhere, instinctively, in the background in a thread like this.

I mean this post of mine in that thread, and specifically, the part of my post that starts with, "All that aside though, there are also deeper reasons than the mere pragmatic one why I've come back on that belief", and ends with my second quote of JP, before the start of the bullet point list.

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Yes it is sad, shewolfnm. I apologize for jumping on you. But wouldn't you be happy to receive 7 times your daily wage (tax free) for simply being honest?

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nimh wrote:

FreeDuck wrote:
However, I'm not going to assume that the woman was rich because she had 17000 in cash.

Ehm, in the Philippines, even having 17,000 $ at hand at any point in your life, for any reason, would make you rich, yes.

Do you know that the woman was Philippino? Could she have been a tourist from a higher cost of living place, like where $17,000 isn't even enough for a down payment on a condo?

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shewolfnm wrote:

FreeDuck wrote:
And the article did say that the measly 32 dollars was several times what the cabbie makes in a day.

I sort of find it impossible to think that a cabbie lives on less then 30.00 a day.

that....... is sad

It's all relative. Although it might not provide the type of long term security that many of us strive for, there's plenty of places where $30 a day would provide a very comfortable living wage. I once went for lunch at a Bangkok street stall with some friends. Four meals and five drinks cost us just under $4 Australian.

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I was curious about the woman in the story, too. I found this, which has a bit more info but no more about the woman.

http://ricojr.wordpress.com/2007/07/02/tricycle-driver-returns-17000-to-passenger/

One thing I found interesting about it though is that it puts the reward amount at "P1,500" as opposed to "about $32." I think there's something about $32 that's automatically off-putting... it smacks of just digging in her pockets and depositing the contents in his palm, or something. 1,500 is a nice round number.

It also seems like the $17,000 was actually dollars, while the reward was in Phillipine currency. I don't know enough about the economy there to know how common the use of dollars is, or if the dollars peg her as a foreigner/ American.

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Bottom line, the financial state of the finder of the money, IMO, has nothing to do with anything. As I have alluded to, I would have given a more generous reward, but that is MY choice, and also has nothing to do with the issue. One person's need is not another person's obligation.

I really find it fascinating as to how this thread has progressed.

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FreeDuck wrote:

nimh wrote:
FreeDuck wrote:
However, I'm not going to assume that the woman was rich because she had 17000 in cash.

Ehm, in the Philippines, even having 17,000 $ at hand at any point in your life, for any reason, would make you rich, yes.

Do you know that the woman was Philippino? Could she have been a tourist from a higher cost of living place, like where $17,000 isn't even enough for a down payment on a condo?

And how would a "tourist from a higher cost of living place" who's touring the Philippines not be "rich" compared to average local wages?

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Why does it matter if she was rich compared to local wages? The fact is that if she was from a higher cost of living place then she has less of that money to burn. She may very well have needed every dime of that money. The whole premise behind the argument that she could have given more is that she presumably had more to spare. But you don't know that.

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nimh wrote:

And how would a "tourist from a higher cost of living place" who's touring the Philippines not be "rich" compared to average local wages?

You're right. Western tourists are for the most part extremely wealthy in comparison to the average person in the Philippines.

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Also it seems like the reward exchange happened right there at the police station -- he dropped off the pouch (with money in it, but he didn't know it was $17,000 until he got there) minutes after she showed up to say it was gone. They connected, she pressed the reward on him (which he was hesitant to accept), and she was off.

(I'm not arguing any particular perspective here, just with so little info it could go a few ways. The guy seems like a good, decent person who could easily have gotten in severe trouble if he kept the money, and the woman doesn't seem automatically horrible to me, especially with the detail that she had to really urge him to accept any reward at all.)

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Man with sick wife, overdue rent, returns $17,000

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