I don’t mean doctor-making-150k-a-year rich, I mean properly rich with millions to billions of dollars.

I think many will say yes, they can be, though it may be rare. I was tempted to. I thought more about it and I wondered, are you really a good person if you’re hoarding enough money you and your family couldn’t spend in 10 lifetimes?

I thought, if you’re a good person, you wouldn’t be rich. And if you’re properly rich you’re probably not a good person.

I don’t know if it’s fair or naive to say, but that’s what I thought. Whether it’s what I believe requires more thought.

There are a handful of ex-millionaires who are no longer millionaires because they cared for others in a way they couldn’t care for themselves. Only a handful of course, I would say they are good people.

And in order to stay rich, you have to play your role and participate in a society that oppresses the poor which in turn maintains your wealth. Are you really still capable of being a good person?

Very curious about people’s thoughts on this.

  • SpiderShoeCult
    1·
    1 year ago

    Not the best system, but I would say reaching a point of not having to worry about the future from a resource perspective without having any job to speak of would probably qualify as rich enough - the point after which it makes no sense to hoard.

    Ah but how do we define that, you say? Should I worry I am not able to get my pound of caviar for every meal? Well, no. We could scale it to say the average consumption of the area one inhabits. Say what 90% of the people consume. Hell, let’s be generous and say what top middle quantile consumes in terms of food, services, goods. That would also solve the 10$ banana issue. It would also, in an ideal world, stimulate the rich to invest in a better society. Naive, I know, people are the reason we can’t have nice things.