We met a guy on the bus stop at Fandors (or is it Fendors? oh whatever..) and we assumed that he also want to get on the bus - just like us. What he actually did, however, is asking us for a dollar because he needs that one dollar to buy a new pair of glasses and in return he'll give us 4 tokens for the bus. But before that, he asked everyone of us which kind of payment we use to pay the bus fare and neither of us said "We use tokens". Sadly, he wheeled away - he was a disabled person yet he can roam everywhere he likes God bless America for that - and waited for other people who would take his tokens.
After a while and me asking sis about what that man actually wanted, Mom suggested to give him 4 dollars for his 4 tokens (because it usually costs a dollar per bus trip - except when you have these bus tickets called transfers). So I called him and asked him if he need 4 dollars for his 4 tokens and he said yes - he even gave one free token! After that, you could see that he was relieved and really grateful and he also said we were a bunch of nice people and etc. Then off he went to a $1 store to buy his new glasses.
Hmm.. Now that was weird.. Why did he thank us as if we are the nicest people on earth? (I know, I'm just exaggerating but this strengthen my point anyway) Mom, then, explained to me that this country is quite extremely capitalist and it really follows the demand-supply theory they teach you in school. So we were actually being weird to him instead of him being weird to us because a normal American would gladly give only a dollar for those 4 unnecessary tokens. Well, I just think that paying 4 dollars for 4 bus tokens in any situation is common sense anyway and I'm glad we gave him the money he needed. =) Plus, he gave us one extra token.. =p
Now *this* is the kind of experience I've been looking for..
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