Zsenitan's Road Trip Chronicle wrote:

At the end of the day Andy and I took a cab driven by a stuttering, mentally stunted, wild-eyed ex-trucker. I was pretty sure that this ride would end up as an It Could Happen To You?! story in one of Joe’s gun rags, but to everyone’s shock and awe it was totally the nicest – and cheapest – cab ride either Andy or I had taken in LA. The driver had a severe hip injury which prevented him from following his true passion: cooking. He told us about trucking in northern California, and how he didn’t make much money driving a cab (probably because he charges actual mileage and time rather than Imaginary Eastern European Polish Notation mileage and time) but at least it’s work. Andy tipped him $5 on a $12 fare. I tried to sound soothingly sympathetic, rather than horrified, regarding his unluckiness. He was grateful just to have an audience – grateful enough to stop his fare clock several blocks early, anyway.

After all the IT/Awful Little Man/everyone else on the planet drama, I felt queasy: that fucked dude in his fucked cab, being honest and going broke for it! If he only knew what awful little men make for lying and shirking.

Truth-telling and honest work are the foremost fairytales of American life, inculcated practically from the mother’s titty into every child. Almost everyone figures out that it is BS on the level of Santa Claus, but the mythology is as inescapable during one’s career as Santa is at Christmas. True believers suffer the most.