I want to and am working toward becoming rich. This kind of holds me back though. If/when it happens, do the world’s problems suddenly become my problems to solve and I can’t really be rich until I do? If that is the line of thinking, then I’ll never get there, or I’ll have a whole lot of people that hate me. That’s a bit fucked up.
There is something broken in the logic of this. I mean, I see the point, if you believe that billionaires have piles of money just laying around that they swim in and could easily throw a bit at and solve all of our world problems, like homelessness, hunger, and undrinkable water. It isn’t the reality though.
At what point do we get to decide what others do with their money? I’d be pissed if my next door neighbor came over and told me that I needed to spend more of my money making it so there are no more homeless people running around. Wouldn’t you? Here we are though. This isn’t okay. It isn’t their fault and those aren’t only their problems to fix. How much money have you spent solving world hunger this month?
My Three Issues with this logic.
1) Billionaires have money just laying around and they should spend it solving problems, not buying fancy cars and houses.
Firstly, wealth is determined by adding up the value of all assets, not just money, attached to a person, minus their debt. A good business man has more coming in than he has going out. A really good business man has money coming in and going right back out all over the place, growing. It isn’t just lying around anywhere.
It includes, investments, property, ownership of businesses and the assets of those businesses. It isn’t just “laying around” in piles of cash in a safe somewhere where they can pull it out and buy a new house for every homeless person they encounter. They are rich because their money is working and making more money for them.
The average billionaire only personally pulls in about $120,000 per year between all of their income streams. A smart one pulls in less than that. Everything else is poured back into their businesses or into acquiring new assets, Things that increase in value over time. When they sell the asset, they have made more money than they spent.
Charity is included in that. They make huge donations on top of creating their own foundations and pour money into them also. You can do a quick google search and see exactly how much they spend every year. The amounts will stagger you.
2) The world’s problems aren’t money solvable.
Billions upon billions of dollars are thrown at world problems annually, in private and public sectors, and yet, the problems still exist. Money alone will never be enough. It’s because they aren’t money problems. They are we don’t all help others problems. We blame it on rich people not doing enough instead of doing things that help others prevent becoming homeless in the first place.
We shrug our shoulders and go on about our business when utility companies charge outrageous monthly bills, but you still can’t drink the water. You have to pay the bill or be cut off. We shrug our shoulders when someone that can’t get a job because they are dirty and don’t have an address to put on an application and won’t drop some change in a cup to help them out. We shrug our shoulders when we see people that could use our help all around us, but just keep walking because we are barely making it ourselves, but we have a safe place to lay down and sleep at night.
We wholly expect the rich to fix them, and the fact that they still exist means that THEY aren’t doing enough. It’s a mindset and I’m watching it get spread around all over the place. A post that said “if the question is are rich people to blame, the answer is yes and work from there.” sparked the inspiration for this post. It’s not the answer, and yet it’s spreading all over the place.
Until that mindset changes, and we all start doing things to help each other out, instead of blaming the rich for not doing enough, they never will be solved. I’m not saying go out and invite a homeless person to live with you, but what could you do. If not for them, for someone else? Are you doing it? Until most if not all of us do, world problems are going to remain world problems.
3) We don’t get to decide what others do with their money.
The logic seems to be that if I can afford to buy an expensive anything, I should spend it instead on keeping everyone around me from being homeless, hungry, without clean water to drink, and all of their other needs met first, or I’m a rich and useless bastard. I can’t buy a car, or anything else nice, until those problems are solved completely first.
Is this for real? I mean, is this really what I am going to face when I step out of living paycheck to paycheck and start living my dream? Why in the hell would I want to do that? This holds me back. I either have to stay where I am but help others move forward, or move forward and just become okay with being a rich and useless bastard.
Isn’t that about some bullshit. There comes a point that you have to accept that many will refuse to see the whole picture. They don’t want to do things that will help others. They just want to complain and blame others. I don’t know how to fix that, other than what I’m doing.
If “rich people suck” is what you say out loud, via posts on social media or while sitting around with friends shooting the breeze is what you are spreading, it has to stop. People in general don’t know what it takes to become wealthy or maintain it. They don’t know that the wealthy do donate butt loads of money toward trying to end the worlds problems but also know that money isn’t going to fix it.
It makes people afraid to take steps toward becoming rich., and that is what halts progress on those problems. Not the rich. Our attitudes toward the rich. We have to over come it and leave those that believe it behind. It kills them. It’s killing me.
Instead of seeing or saying Rich People Suck, try, have I helped someone else do better themselves without money or how am I making my money work and grow for me so I can help others with money? Until the concept changes, the world isn’t going to change.
I’ll just have to be seen as a rich and useless bastard by those that refuse to see all that I have done to make a difference.
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