Divorce over an $80 haircut

I was talking with a buddy of mine a couple of days ago. He has some friends that are getting a divorce. He was talking with the wife who was complaining that her soon to be ex husband "just doesn't understand her." The telling example she gave him is that she really needs a haircut because "just look at my hair. I need to get it cut." Problem is, the only person she will go to charges $80. He wants her to go to someone who charges less.

Both her and her husband have been out of work for several months. Their house is in foreclosure and they can't pay any bills. I'm sure there is a lot more to this divorce than one haircut but my friend says the whole situation revolves around money issues.

I am convinced that people (and businesses) don't get into trouble during the bad times. They get in trouble during the good times. When times are good, they overextend themselves, get used to a certain standard of living and can't pull back when the bad times come. All of a sudden the luxuries they have grown accustomed to have become rights. (Unfortunately, this has become one of the big problems in society. Somehow, because we live in America, everyone has a right to a big screen tv and everything else which can be bought on credit. Whatever happened to working hard and paying cash -- ie money you ACTUALLY have-- for things?)

Arrogance

We can have many bad habits and character flaws. Most of these can be easily seen by us and others. After all, if we are dishonest, greedy, a moocher etc. it will eventually come out.

A harder one to diagnose is arrogance. I think arrogance starts out in a more noble way. We do an excellent job at our workplace or are especially successful in our relationships and we start to feel pretty good about ourselves. People pat us on the back. At some point it begins to cross the line to arrogance. At this point, we think that we did such a great job everyone knows how good we are, therefore we don't need to try as hard. "Everyone bow to me because I kicked butt last year." We stop trying as hard because after all, everyone knows how good we are, right? Little or dirty jobs suddenly are beneath us. No need to help others, that is not my job.

The problem with arrogance is that, unlike most other character flaws, it can be contagious to others. An arrogant person can infect an entire company or group and is really hard to get rid of.

Glad this isn't me. In fact, just about everyone I see is arrogant except me, right? ;)