Once again, the last few threads with comments discussing money, credit cards, general debt and income has inspired me for another episode of "Toad's IMNSHO diahrrea of the mouth"
The undercurrent of resentment towards those with a lot of money is alive and well in every society of every country of the planet. That is an undisputable fact.
The most common ways to have lots of money are:
1. Inheritance.
2. Earn it with self effort, smart work and responsible management.
3. By illicit means or by taking advantage of someone else's efforts/work ethic.
Money in and by itself only makes you more of what you already are.....a generous person becomes a philantropist and a supporter of worthy causes to help others. A selfish person becomes abusive or despotic towards those he/she interacts with in life. But the seeds for the kind of person you become are planted no matter how much money you have, or not.
IMNSHO, people who do not want to be financially rich have a problem with their value scale...some kind of imbalance.
Like a vitamin deficiency of sorts.
Most people want to have a rich family life, a rich life health wise, a rich spiritual life, a rich social life, a rich life full of knowledge...and many other ways to be rich.
But when it comes to finances, many of those people simply do not want to be rich financially...WHY???
If you live in a country with an economist system that provides the opportunities to become wealthy like the US does, what is your excuse for not applying yourself to achieve the highest possible leves of financial production you can to the extent of your natural talents, efforts and work ethic, uh uh uh uh???
Being wealthy does not prevent you from achieving any of the other riches. In most cases it makes it easier.
While I always admired many self made wealthy people who achieved to enjoy their riches, my ex-wife canine developed a blanket hatred for anyone or anything that represented wealth.
She knew she lacked the natural talents, self discipline and diligence to do it herself.
In other words, her resentment for the wealthy was rooted on the envy casued by the recognition of her own shortcomings, not by anything these wealthy people had done to deserve it.
..."If you make too much money you go to Hell"... was one of her favorite anti-wealth phrases.
One day I asked her: "Well, woman...tell me the amount of money it takes for anyone to go to hell. I don't want to go to hell, damn it, but I need to know where I should stop coming up with ideas and ways to make more money to better our family life"
What it all boiled down to in the end was that according to her, anyone making more money than her should go to hell...
And that, unfortunately, is the view of the many who look for, find and apply a myriad of rationalized ways to justify demonizing the few who excel to achieve and become wealthy in the process.
I think that money can become an enemy at the moment when making money becomes the goal of life, when a person forgets his friends, family, hobbies and so on, and has just one goal to make money....
Also I think that a person should have enough money to afford things that he really needs and not more or less.
Dale,
NOTHING at all, as long as you don't use it to resent or demonize others who want, achieve and have more than you do.
That crap is flat out evil.
"I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money's sake."
John D. Rockefeller
Arta,
JDR referred to those who neglect to enrich themselves in any other aspect of their lives in order to pursue financial wealth.
that is indeed a poor poor man at the end of his day.
Are you telling me that you financial ambition is evil but spiritual or family life riches ambitions are not if pursued with the same balanced intensity?
Or that one must forgo of one to achieve the other one?
Arta,
JDR referred to those who neglect to enrich themselves in any other aspect of their lives in order to pursue financial wealth.
that is indeed a poor poor man at the end of his day.
Are you telling me that you financial ambition is evil but spiritual or family life riches ambitions are not if pursued with the same balanced intensity?
Or that one must forgo of one to achieve the other one?
Paul,
I'm sure there are many unhappy wealthy people out there.
But I will not buy into your insinuation that money makes people miserable or unhappy. No way, Jose...no way, no how!!
What I strive for a is well balanced combination of life achievements that also include financial wealth.
I was not born into money and I sure as hell never wanted to make millions illegaly...so I've been making my money the old fashion way. Earned it, managed it and saved it so I can enjoy using and spend it to give myself and my loved ones a better than average life standard.
You know there is nothing evil about money or the person whose pockets it is in when he/she uses it to save someone's life because they need a life saving surgical procedure that private insurance or government provided medical services do not offer....or you use it to give your elderly parents a comfortable and dignified retirement lifestyle free of financial fears...or to pay for your children higher education without having without resorting to increase the debt on your home mortgage.....or to support the organizations you have faith in, whether they be charities or religious or otherwise.
"....Also I think that a person should have enough money to afford things that he really needs and not more or less...."
Pitchka,
That is what I call "flea syndrome"
You see, in this country we have flea trainers.
Anyone can become a flea trainer with a little patience...:))
First these flea trainers catch a bunch of fleas and put them in a glass jar with the lid securely fastened.
Then they gently place the jar full of fleas on a shelf and go about their other daily activities without a second thought of effort to do anything about their "fleas-in-training".
Yes, that's true, the flea trainers' job is over.
They do not have to do anything else to the fleas, except wait them out until they get fully trained....
Once inside the jar, every single flea starts jumping.
Why?
Because that's what fleas do, lol...In their flea natural minds the fleas keep jumping. That's what Nature design them to do. That's one of the few things they do well. They jump.
And they keep jumping looking for a way out of the jar.
They know they're in captivity and they do not like it.
They want out.
They want freedom to go anywhere they please with their little flea jumps.
But they can't. But the keep jumping.
And they keep jumping, only to find out the lid keeps them from going out there where freedom is because every time they jump with all thier might they hit their head on the lid.
But they keep jumping.
And they keep hitting their heads.
But they keep jumping.
And they're not stupid.
After a while their little flea heads start hurting so they keep jumping...but not so high to avoid hitting their heads on the lid.
And they keep jumping.....just not with all their might or power, because doing so hurts their heads.
So after a while, the flea trainer invites you to see his trained fleas. He opens the lid and proudly presents you his trained fleas.
None of his fleas will stop jumping, but they will do it only to the imaginary line of where the lid was, never aiming to beyond the invisible 'pain' line.
In psychology that is called "conditioning" and those fleas are conditioned to spend the rest of thier lives not knowing that all they have to do is jump with all thier might one more time and they'll be out of the jar and free to go.
Do you think you're FREE, people?
Feel free to book a vacation trip to anywhere in the world tomorrow. You can't, can you?
Because you got shackles on your legs, that's why.
Do you think you're not 'conditioned'?
Tell your boss tomorrow that you no longer want to work for his company. You can't, can you?
Because you're conditioned to work for someone else, for a limited amount of money in exchange for a limited amount of time.
More shackles, uh?
And that, my dear Pitchka and forum friends, IMNSHO is what I think of how much money people should or should not have.
Toad, I'm not quite understand what you were trying to say...well but I have to say that I don't need a trip somewhere else, and I keep to my work because I like it!!!:))) You see I guess there is a limit at which any person thinks that he is enough with money or not...I feel that I have everything I need at the moment, but if I will need something else...I'm sure that the money will be found this way or that way it's really not important:))
you have some complexes toad, are you uneasy about you sistuation and therefore are seeking approval. We have what we have, but everyone wants more. More happiness is what we want more of. If you think that money brings you this, that is fine. Comfort in finances always makes life easier and is one less reason to quarrel with your partner, but spening to much time chacing this finacial comform can also bring relationship problems. Balance is very important. By the way, you x sound jealous more than anything else, jealous of what she did not have and others did. Happiness is never found looking over you fence at you neibours posessions.
I have a barometer for all worldly things. If God asked you to give something up, how easy would it be for you to do? I do not include other people. I would surrender my own life before I would give them up.
I understand where you are coming from Toad, but I would have to ask myself, how well do I balance family and work? Do I think I can do both equally well? Is this not the crux of our reasoning for seeking FSU ladies?
Dale, lol
I was one of the best trained fleas myself for many years.
One day, I took a jump higher than usual out of sheer curiosity and probably because I was too dumb to remember how much my head hurt when I hit the lid. And viola...I was out!
I've been jumping around ever since, lol...:))
ID,
I already enjoy the balance that brings not only financial wealth but satisfaction and piece of mind in most other aspects of my life. And I assure you noone else's approval is needed to enjoy such thing.
I do not hesitate to start threads like this whenever I read statements I support, disagree with or simply make my skin crawl.
The way several forum roomies here were talking about money, income and debts in general or in particular "inspired" me, (in a morbid sort of way) to dedicate a thread to it.
I read a few misguided statements about how evil money is by itself and decided to stir the shit pot before things got to far to the left of common sense and into the realm of liquid caca.
I don't do it to gain cookie points with anyone.
I don't need them.
I do not wish to be anyone's hero other than my kids' and family's, and I'm already that.
And yes, the poor ex-female canine was a poor case, indeed....to this day I still scratch my head once in a blue moon wondering why she'd spend so much time and energy peeking over other people's fences, as you put it, specially knowing that she would suffer with all the envy it would cause.
Ditto,
I am a dyslexic devout agnostic (borderline atheist) man who suffers from occasional insomnia, so sometimes I stay up all night wondering if there is a Dog...:))
Just kidding, I sleep like a baby every day and I won debate contests in three languages, so the dyslexic is only part of the joke, as well....
I am too pragmatic and I do not ask the questions you present that involve a religious deity I do not believe in.
But I can tell you this that has helped me reach the balance I enjoy today:
Think 'backwards'.
1. Build a concise crystal clear picture of the balance in life of what you want to achieve to its most minute detail.
2. Put it in writing. Make copies of it and put in places where you'll have no choice but to see it at least a few times per day.
3. Measure the 'time and action' distance between where you are right now and the picture of what you want to achieve. Be realistic about it.
4. Execute.
5. Enjoy.
simple, uh?
It's taken me over 15 years to get it right. Maybe you, or anyone not as dumb as I am can do it in...hummm....a few weeks, maybe?..:)))
The crux in my search of quite different than yours.
I already know I will have odles of time to enjoy with my future wife and family.