Recently, Reddit user u/Yiga_Blade_Master asked, "What is the most out-of-touch thing you have ever heard? And how did you respond to it?"
The stories people shared were truly surprising. Here are the most out-of touch things people had to say:
1. "My coworker, fresh out of school, was really confused about why so many people took public transportation to commute into the city. Turned out, her parents paid for a personal driver for her, and that's how she got to work and back. Not an Uber — a car service. She had no idea what it cost, probably never thought about it, and just figured everyone else preferred the subway and bus to having a personal driver."
2. "I shared a house with someone rich in college, who was either not yet or barely 21, and she complained about her peer not being educated in wine. She said that there was 'no excuse.'"
3. "Many years ago, I was living in Philadelphia. I had a very nice colleague at the office. She was a young woman from a very privileged family. She’d lived all her life downtown. One weekend, we were going to meet for lunch. We spoke on the phone, and I said I'd see her soon. I was out in West Philadelphia, so I grabbed the subway and got off a block from her apartment. She said, 'You got here so quickly!' I told her I took the subway. She replied, 'Now, don’t tease me; there’s no subway here; we’re not in New York.' I had to walk her over one block, show her the stop, and even go down to the ticket level — at the subway one block from where she’d lived for 30 years."
4. "At an old job, I had a breakdown because I had not been paid in six weeks and literally was unable to eat. I was walking to work because I could not afford gas. My boss found me crying and told me I was being 'petty' for wanting my money and asked me, 'Why don’t you just live off of your savings?' I was a 21-year-old recent college grad who wasn’t getting my paychecks. What savings???"
5. "When I was interning at a museum early in my career, my husband and I were house hunting and put an offer on our home. One of the interns I worked with came from a very, very rich family (think old-money oil baron type). He didn't have to work; he just enjoyed learning history and traveling around to different internships for fun. He asked me what steps I needed to take to buy the house, and I mentioned our mortgage paperwork. He sneered and looked at me as if I was the dumbest person alive and said, 'Don't mess with a mortgage, just buy it outright! It will save you money in interest!' OK, dude, as a 25-year-old supporting myself, I am just going to pull $400,000 out of my butt."
6. "My mom's ex-boyfriend was making jokes about some of the physical things my mother's body deals with after having four natural births, so I said, 'Well, yeah, she has had four kids.' His (I can't stress enough that he's male) response was, 'Well, I've had two kids, and I don't have any problems.' I said, 'Well, Bob, it's not really the same thing.' This guy replies, 'How would you know? You don't have any kids.'"
7. "A woman tried to tell me that farms are unethical and we don't even need farms or farmers anymore anyway because everyone can just go to the store to get their food. I just had to walk away."
8. "My grandparents-in-law were so out of touch when my spouse and I were negotiating to buy our house. They are retired, and the grandfather was a New York lawyer. He said, 'They are asking $400,000? Just offer them $200,000 in cash, and they'll take it.' We informed them that we didn't have $200,000 in cash."
9. "My dad said, 'I read it’s good to be in more debt from college because it relates to getting a better job once you graduate.' I literally took 15 years to pay off $70,000 in loans."
10. "It’s a fairly small example, but I was in eighth grade and talking about levels of wealth, or lack thereof, with a couple of friends. My family didn’t have money growing up, but we were never poverty level or anything. One friend, I guess, didn’t want to be seen as affluent and said his family is actually poor because they have a mortgage on their house."
11. "I’m pregnant, and I was chatting to my husband’s family about how I was introducing honey and peanut butter to my diet to try to curb any allergies for the baby. A member of his family said with a straight face, 'Vaccines cause peanut allergies.'"
12. "My coworker said, 'You'll be able to buy a home once you get your inheritance.' I said, 'I won't have an inheritance; my family isn't well off.' They replied, 'Of course you have an inheritance. Everyone's parents leave them an inheritance. I'm sure they're just keeping it a secret from you to surprise you.'"
13. "My mother-in-law still believes that every job has a guaranteed annual pay raise. I've given up trying to explain why inflation actually affects most people."
14. "I am on dialysis, and my next-door neighbor keeps asking me if my kidneys have 'grown back yet' because her sister-in-law had the same thing I have, and her kidneys grew back."
15. "My dad thought that rent was $200 for a studio apartment. I told him the actual prices. He had to sit down."
16. And last: "I've had a boss try explaining to me that raises won't improve employee morale because most of the staff don't actually care what they're paid and are more interested in rewards like a pizza party."
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.