Today I went grocery shopping. We were out of milk, and, more importantly, toilet paper. I like to be well hydrated so it’s important to have lots of TP around. And since I was going out anyway, I figured, why not check out Whole Foods? This is the high end, snooty grocery store of choice for the rich folk of West Vancouver. I was thinking I might find some seitan there (I didn’t), but anyway they’ll surely have toilet paper (they did: expensive, multiply-recycled stuff. I don’t know how comfortable I am with recycled toilet paper - recycled from what? - but anyway there was only one brand so I bought it).

Here are the pros of Whole Foods: loads of organic stuff, and loads of vegetarian stuff. Soy products galore. Animal product free stuff everywhere you turn. Great selection of bulk whole grains, nuts, rice, and the like. All kinds of unusual brands and specialty items you can’t get at the usual grocery store.

Here are the cons: it’s super expensive. I wouldn’t shop here for stuff you can get at Safeway. And, it is full of rich bitches. Holy fuck, man. I try not to stereotype (after all, I was educated in the post-modern paradigm), but seriously - there’s no other way to say it. At least half of the people in Whole Foods are total rich bitches, complete with clothes too young for them and attitudes too big for them. It seriously interfered with my food joy experience to have to maneuver the aisles with these women. And men - there are rich bitch men too.

I like the organic foods thing. First of all, organic produce tends to taste better, which is crucial if you care about home cooking. And, I like that they have less pesticides, travel less distance, and tend to support local growers (though not always - check the labels). But it’s nothing short of a tragedy that organics have been coopted from the hippies by these jackasses, because I’m so put off by them that I’m considering switching exclusively to vegetables grown in Iraqi oil patches, coated in wax, shipped one by one on jumbo jets, and rolled in Agent Orange at customs.

It’s hard to pin down just what sets these people apart. Okay, they dress very expensively and drive huge, swanky cars. Their watches are all expensive (I know watches). The women wear too much jewelry. They have phony smiles. But whatever - it’s not a crime to be well off. I guess my problem is the attitudes. You could cut the entitlement with a knife. These are people who figure they deserve the best - and again, okay, maybe they do, if you measure “deserve” by income. But I think this kind of attitude is necessarily paired with a judgment about other people who are less well off - that they don’t deserve what you’re getting. The problem with this is that wealth has all too often nothing at all to do with merit. Some people are rich because they worked hard and earned it, some because they got lucky, some because they had the right parents, some for no reason at all (Britney Spears, anyone?). And there are loads of hard working, dedicated, deserving people who are decidedly not as rich as they should be.

I’m not dissing wealth. I’m dissing the attitude of entitlement. I’m not rich but I’m more secure than most, and instead of feeling superior to those without my advantages, I feel appreciative and fortunate. My money has nothing to do with my personal value as a human being. Is it the product of hard work? Hell yes - my husband is the breadwinner in our family and he has worked his ass off from nothing to get us where we are. But even so, our money doesn’t reflect his value as a human being either. In our case it does reflect hard work, but it just as easily might not have, say if we’d won the lottery or inherited it. I try to keep this in mind, and remember that in general, all people are important. Your stock portfolio doesn’t say anything about whether you are a good friend, loving parent, loyal employee. This keeps me on the path of humility and understanding for others, rather than on a path of feeling entitled and superior.

Also, when you’re at a natural foods market, when you talk deserve you’re talking about deserving what should be a right for everyone: the healthiest foods, the least toxic ingestibles to nourish your children, the widest choice to facilitate choices like vegetarianism.  But I’m no communist. I understand it costs money to produce this excellent food, and that someone needs to make money as an incentive to continue. And you can’t just give it away and expect the system to be sustainable.

So, I don’t know what the solution is. But please, rich people, stop thinking you’re better than everyone else. You’re not. You’re just richer, that’s it.  And you can’t judge a book by its bank balance.