Do you envy the rich?
Hey WA family. Some of you may have heard that the people that are poor or middle class, hate the rich. I think it may have started around the time of the occupy protests. I also heard it repeated during the 2012 election. Mitt Romney said he believed that anyone advocating for the poor, must envy the rich. Now here at Wealthy Affiliate, I'm sure it is safe to say that most of us are working to make our lives better. We all have different money goals, but the bottom line is we are here to help our families live more enjoyable lives.
When I am finally at a point where I have enough money to take of myself, buy a home for myself as well as my mom, and travel when I want, that will be great. However, I will still want to help those that are less fortunate. I will continue to write checks to charities and may even start one for battered women or the homeless. The kind and giving nature I have found here with many of you, feels genuine to me. And I used to be in sales, so I have heard lots of bs artists! :)
So I just wanted to put the question to the community. Do you secretly envy the rich? Or do you just like to read about them to gain inspiration? This conversation seems to come up whenever the taxes are being debated. I believe to whom much is given, much is required. I have had the good fortune to have a couple of conversations with a millionaire and he told me to concentrate on becoming a benevolent millionaire (or billionaire, if that is your goal). Give of your fortune, as well as your spirit. I thought that was excellent advice. So for me, I would be more of the Mark Zuckerberg mindset (who was fine with his tax bill going up slightly), not the Sam Zell's of the world, who says the 1% just work harder. I don't know about you, but I know a lot of people that do back breaking work and are barely making enough to survive. Also we know that some people inherited their fortunes, so they were born into it.
I don't envy anyone who figures out a way to make money. I try to learn from them. For instance, Will Smith taught me the importance of staying focused. Kim Kardashian (don't roll your eyes. I know she can be annoying), taught me about the importance of branding.
Any thought about the rich?
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I find the word Rich very misleading as it's not definitive as a meaning. How do you define Rich, what does it measure or how do you measure it? The problem is perception and the majority of people aspire to this with the simple understanding that the more toys you have the Richer you are - this is where it's misleading.
The true measure is Wealth, which is defined by being able to walk away from a business and returning a year later, with the business being more profitable than the previous year.
You need to change your way of thinking, it's not about what you have in monetary terms, but what is generated from what you have - i.e. Investments, Property portfolio etc. It's far wiser to be Asset Rich and Cash Poor than Asset Poor and Cash Rich.
This is why so many Lotto winners end up with nothing in the end because they don't have the Financial intelligence to invest the money in assets that generates more wealth. Instead it gets spent on depreciating assets like cars and boats etc.
You are absolutely right. The term rich is relative and I should have clarified this better. If you know me, you know that I consider myself to be rich right now. So my thinking is clear, because the term rich in the abstract can mean different things to different people. I was mainly making a statement based on the political debate going on right now about the top 1%. There seems to be some wealthy individuals who feel they are being persecuted right now. One guy named Tom Perkins even said the rich are being treated like the Jews were by the Nazi's. What?! So anyone that suggests that our tax laws should be made more fair, is somehow proving that they hate the rich? Or of you advocate for loop holes to be closed so that billion dollar corporations pay their taxes, you hate success. There are companies getting billions in subsidies from the taxpayer and anyone that suggests this should stop, hates the rich?That is ridiculous and that was my point.
But you are absolutely right, rich is a relative term. Maybe I should have said wealthy. There is a joke by comedian Chris Rock that goes Oprah is rich, but Bill Gates is wealthy. Lol.
Wow dear, your goals are inspiring and I want the best for you so that wonderful center that takes battered women can be built by you and I can come over to give a motivation speech to them.
To me the WEALTHY i admire and adore...I love them but in the past three years I have been working on equalizing the Love to all humanity no matter the background...so no favorizing to the rich or criticism to the poor or any form of classification. I have humongous goals and I live in a bubble of my perfect life.
I know it's going to happen since I have actually materialized most of my goals...It doesn't help anyone to live little when we all have unlimited potential...I will have toys and so forth but I will not depend on them for status
Yes, I agree with you. We all have unlimited potential and we all deserve compassion and empathy, regardless of background. Thanks for taking the time to comment. Much more success to you and yours!
I would agree with you. I don't think that those who have been successful are bad people. There are certainly bad successful people as well as bad unsuccessful people. Money does however, have a tendency to define who people are. They react to having it or they react to not having it, some react well and some do not.
Hi, How true about how people react to money or lack thereof. I think what you hit on is that most generalizations can be dangerous. Which is why I like to get to know a person regardless of their race, tax bracket, nationality etc... Thanks for commenting. To your success!
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Chris Rock makes me laugh and I like the comparison between Oprah and Bill Gates very funny