The shame of illiteracy

A couple of weeks ago, I really experienced the true magnitude of illiteracy.

I'm currently having some work done on my house, and I've been talking to one of the subcontractors about health and life insurance. One day, he asked me if I had some more information I could give him. I was in a rush to an appointment so I gave him a brochure and told him I would talk to him about it later.

When I came back home, he was gone and the brochure was folded up and on my kitchen counter. At the time, I just thought he had forgotten it.

Then a few days later, he approached me again about insurance and we spoke. But this time, he asked me if I could review some information he had received from another insurance agent about "some type of insurance". He really wasn't sure what was being offered other than it was insurance.

I obliged.

He was being offered liability insurance for his business, which is something he definitely needed. But, I could tell that he had not even looked at the paperwork. I began to realize that this was more than a man just asking for my professional opinion. This was a man who could not read and wanted me to review the information and tell him what to do.

At that moment, I really felt sad for this man. Here he is with a pretty successful business, but because he can't read he has to depend on me, someone he really doesn't know, to help him make this important business decision.

What if I had no integrity?

He would be so easy to take advantage of.

As it stood, he really did not know the difference between the type of insurance that he was being quoted for, and what I had to offer. I could have easily have said that I was offering the same thing at a much more affordable price and he would have believed me.

It would have been an easy sale.

That is what I found so scary. This man was so very helpless, simply because he couldn't read.

Honestly, I don't know if he took my advice. I wanted to write down some notes for him to ask his agent so that he could make the best possible decision.

Obviously, I couldn't.

The Wizard has spoken.