This is a wild concept for other cultures. Like, in Germany people will help you move. Your friends that is. Maybe a coworker or neighbour - if you even know any neighbour at all. That is all but a given here as well. But some random guy? Nah…

Oh and you absolutely have to rent a truck. I don’t know a single truck person. There is no such thing as having a truck, unless you need it for business. Long story short: I just paid a company >2k to move just one town over

That was the ancient economy, before money even existed. You gave stuff to people. Bread, pots, meat, build a cabin. They gave stuff back that you needed, roughtly about the same value, but never exactly the value. Everybody has to be a little in debt to anyone else. If you gave back exactly what it’s worth, it means you don’t want to deal with that person anymore.

Americans are a very friendly people, all things considered. The whole smiling at everyone you see, helping out strangers for fun thing is not universal. Thus, this post.

it’s hard to remember that the average person is a human just like yourself

As a Canadian who owns a truck, I think this may just be a North American thing. I am the guy that is referred to when one says “I know a guy”.

Ignore religion, politics, and hard drugs and this is just normal.

Except women also have those connections.

The price may be different, like a baby blanket for their neice.

If you are moving ALL your stuff, hire movers.

In my experience, that’s what Dad is for.

It starts with Dad moving you to and from dorm rooms. Then apartments.

When my wife and I moved to our house I hired movers. It was a lot easier and not terribly expensive.

When my wife moved her business to a new building, my mom told me my dad insisted on helping us move, so I didn’t hire movers as I had planned. When we were moving the tons of furniture, cabinets, and massive boxes stuffed full of files, my dad mentioned that my mom told him I had asked him to help me move. I have never been able to determine why my mom manipulated us into nearly killing ourselves.

Now I’m the dad. I’ve moved kids to and from dorm rooms and apartments. I’ve rented trucks for huge moves. My daughter and I are moving a couch, a dresser, an end table and all her cooking utensils on Saturday.

Not only do I have a truck, I also have straps, furniture dollies, moving blankets, mattress bags, etc.

My most recent purchase was a shoulder dolly. If you haven’t seen one, picture two harnesses with a wide strap running between them. Two people squat on either end of the item being moved with the wide strap running under it. You take up the slack in the strap, and just stand up to lift it off the ground. It’s a game changer.

I’ve become my own moving company.

There’s a point in your life where “all your stuff” is maybe two non-IKEA pieces of furniture that your parents forced on you when you moved out. And then there’s the point at which “all your stuff” fills a 1600 sqft ranch house and half of it is made out of granite for some reason.

Just, baseline, ignore the meme. If you have to move a refrigerator down a flight of stairs, this is no longer a “buy me a pizza” tier work.

Clay pigeon signal hits the night sky

This phenomenon is the same here in Canada so I will pitch in. It is not enjoyed. It is not hated. It merely is. When a neighbour needs help, you help them. Even if its the neighbour with the yappy dog. There is no emotion tied up in it one way or another. Its just the right thing to do.

Yeah, this is really normal. It’s one of the rare things that I absolutely, genuinely like about my country. If someone says they need help, even a total stranger, you help them.

The good Americans are pretty free with their labor when it comes to their neighbors, and the definition of ‘neighbor’ is pretty loose. If I met you five minutes ago, you need help with something, and we live in the same city, you’re my neighbor.

Definitely not something I’ve heard of. This is either very old school America (50-80s) or something done in very small towns where everyone knows one another.

That said, this is definiely something I know friends would do for each other. Truck or not. You have some boys over to help move some stuff around, you cook or grab food for them an pay the bill. But you gotta be pretty good friends for me to call you up like that (or vice versa).

If you empathize with having to move a heavy sofa up several flights of stairs with only two people, you help move a stranger’s sofa. There’s no enjoyment. It sucks for everyone. People get hurt and bump around and say, “sorry” and “ow” a lot. That’s what the pizza/beer is for.

Even if you’re moving it at 9:00 am, you crack a beer when you’re done. It’s more volunteer work than civic duty, but it feels more rewarding than a shift at the food bank.

Source: I volunteer for the food bank.

Enjoyment is not in the act itself. Enjoyment comes from the appreciation of your fellow citizen who needed a thing moved that they were unable to move without help… And pizza.

I don’t find it uncomfortable. You’re there to do a job, you do it, you get your pizza and the appreciation of your fellow human, you go home.

You’re there for a purpose. People want you there for that purpose. You might not be good at it, but you’re there and that’s the important part. At the end of the day, the thing is done.

It’s a social contract, and it’s not exclusive to guys.

This was the norm when I was young. Comfort with the situation varied, of course. But, to refuse would be more uncomfortable.

It’s one of those social expectations not everyone is comfortable with. I think it comes from a good place though. It’s essentially community sourced mutual aid. For lack of, you know, easy access to aid from society as a whole.

As an another Japanese person, i just felt this story is really wholesome and how humanity in general should be like.

Reading the comments made me realize a couple of things.

1. When I said it sounded “exhausting,” I wasn’t really talking about the physical work of moving the sofa. I meant the effort of maintaining the relationships behind it. In many cases, the pizza isn’t really the reward. From a Japanese perspective, sharing a meal with someone can actually feel like the more demanding part unless you’re very close. Sometimes, even with close friends, it can feel like a bit of an obligation.

2. I think we have a different idea of what “neighbors” and “friends” mean. For many people in Japan today, neighbors are essentially strangers. There are probably still rural communities where neighbors help each other, but that’s much less common in cities. As for friends, we generally don’t rely on them for everyday necessities. Of course we’re happy to help our friends when they need it, but friendship itself isn’t expected to function as part of the infrastructure of daily life. We don’t stay friends because we need each other. We stay friends because we enjoy each other’s company.

It reads that way, but it’s a cute story 🤷

It’s been a blast to see the death of the internet as fraudsters pollute the world with books they hope to make a quick buck on and which they did not write themselves. Real fun. /s