Would you like to be Wealthy?

[el_bryanto]

Assuming you could get the money in an honorable way, would you like to be wealthy?

Bryant

[MedleyMisty]

1. Doesn't matter how you get the money

As long as other people are homeless and starving and sick with no health care, it's not honorable.

[el_bryanto]

7. So you have a duty to share any excess income with the poor and needy? n/t

[stevedeshazer]

25. That's your point, isn't it, el_rushb...errr...el-bryanto?

Yes. In fact, I want you to share all your excess wealth with me.

[el_bryanto]

29. laughs

I'm not fond of Rush Limbaugh.

But why don't you go look at what I was responding to.

Let me also say that I do find it quite noble as an individual to choose not to be wealthy.

Bryant

[kirby]

2. What is wealthy? n/t

[DonEBrook]

3. It would be great if -everyone- were wealthy! Nobody would have to work!

:D

[DainBramaged]

4. you forgot pie

[el_bryanto]

5. I assume everybody likes pie n/t

[Lasher]

6. Pie are round.

Cornbread are square.

[DainBramaged]

8. But the standard poll question is "I like pie"

[sui generis]

9. oh what a perfect poll

not the absence of opinion but notice the absence of votes in certain categories.

:rofl:

It is a shame to imagine that we miss the MEANING of wealth: that one has time to pay attention to one's kids, to be creative rather than a drudge, to pursue art, culture, higher education and personal fulfillment without worrying about how one is going to get food on the table.

Mostly we only associate having "wealth" with consumerism so we can feel good about own inability to consume to our hearts content. The end of that slope is everyone should be like the lowest common denominator, or we aren't happy until everyone is equally unhappy.

[Ian David]

10. I want to live in a wealth cycle and stay there! n/t

[NashVegas]

11. I Would Love to Be Wealthy

So I could build or buy a small theatre and pay young, risk-taking, performing artists to do their thing in my community, where artists who play to the Blue Haired matrons get all the funding they need but few ever bother to support artists who reach out and let young people know that Great art can be made by and is for everyone.

[Nikia]

12. Of course

It would give me time to do better things with my life aside from work. Of course paid employment us obviously useful to the economy, which would collapse if most people didn't do it but many people including myself would rather being pursuing other things if money were no object. Of course getting money in an honorable way would probably include some kind of work which I would have to enjoy or I wouldn't consider becoming wealthy worth it.

[tabbycat31]

13. yes but it's not a be all end all

in my life. I just want enough money to live my life debt free and have a little left over to pass on to others.

[Coyote_Bandit]

14. What's wealthy?

When I worked in the financial industry minimum account balances were often required to be in excess of $1 million and customers were not considered wealthy unless they had an account balance in excess of $5 million. In most cases that meant they had a net worth of at least $7 million or more. And that was a number of years back. I'm guessing the industry definition of what net worth defines one as wealthy these days is probably around $10 million.

Would I like to be wealthy? Sure. I could spread the largess out among environmental, advocacy and charitable groups that I found deserving.

However, I can't in my wildest imagination fathom having a net worth that qualifies me as one of the wealthy. Hell, I'm overeducated on over 40 which makes me mostly unemployable. Maybe I should buy more lottery tickets.

[FirstLight]

27. We should take a closer look at this concept...

what IS wealthy?

each of us has our own bottom line
for me, I haven't made over 20K ever, so wealth looks diferent to me. I would not know what to do with a million or more, but I would hope to chunk an investment into something that will offer more to the world in the long run. Even if that means investing in making MY life more stable so I can focus on creating and not survival.

Ever heard of Maslow's Heirarchy of needs?

[guitar man]

15. sure

After digging, scratching, weeping, wailing and kicking at the pricks all my life trying to make a decent living, hell yes I'd like to be wealthy. :thumbsup:

[CoffeeCat]

16. Who wouldn't want to be wealthy?

Money could give you the freedom to help anyone and any cause that you choose.

Being wealthy isn't a bad thing. Being a greedy, selfish jerk is though.

Having money just enhances and magnifies your good or bad traits.

Money is neutral.

[11 Bravo]

17. Other: Robb is a dingbat. (Hell, somebody had to say it.)

[Dukkha]

18. I would enjoy being a philanthropist

lead by example and give the wealth away to charity while personally living a very modest lifestyle

[mondo joe]

19. Certainly. Personal security, plus the means to influence the world in ways I'd

consider for the better.

[Fleshdancer]

20. I have this "what if money were no object" fantasy...

I would invite community leaders and leaders of the various local charitable orgs to a series of meetings with the goal of coming up with a plan to truly fight poverty. I would want it to be used as a pilot program...really take the time to figure out both the short and long-term needs and fix whatever problems come up.

Once successful, collect all the data, case studies, budget information, etc on the project and figure out how to make it more cost effective without sacrificing quality. From there, attempt the project in several more cities. If it works, then I would package it and make it available to cities all across the country. At this level, I would want to commit myself to consulting with these communities to help them start the program and help with fundraising efforts for communities who can't afford to implement it.

Sort of a "franchise" type model, but for a charitable purpose. Perhaps different packages based on community size?

I have no idea if it would work, but it's just an ongoing fantasy I have.



on edit: stupid mistake in my subject line. :D

[DonEBrook]

23. Don't you mean no object or obstacle rather than option?

;-)

[Fleshdancer]

24. ha! that's what I get for posting before having my coffee

It's a Monday thing. :D

[DonEBrook]

28. Heh...I hear ya. Just doing my usual nitpicking.

:D

[Shiver]

21. I don't want to be wealthy

I want to be comfortable. I want to have enough money to not have to worry about my bills every month, and have enough left over for some luxuries, but not be able to buy everything I want. There's a certain pleasure in having to save for a big-ticket item, and a deeper satisfaction when you bring it home

I don't need a large house or apartment - just big enough to have a guest room, which I will turn into the library - and I don't need eight cars. I want to be comfortable enough that I can take a day off without wincing over the lost pay. And I would really like to not panic about having to go to the dentist without insurance.

This of course, brings up the question of what 'wealth' is compared to 'comfortable'. And a pretty easy answer would be $200,000 to $500,000, or 'upper-middle class' constitutes 'comfortable. So that's about how much I'd like to make. I'm the type of person who enjoys spending money, and after a thought-experiment where I failed to spend one million, having too much excess would drive me nuts.

[unpossibles]

22. Are you kidding? It would be horrible to have to pay so much in taxes!!

Just kidding, obviously.

[FirstLight]

26. Only in the fact that I could do so much to help others!

Honestly, call me an idealist...but the first thing that comes to my mind is how cool it would be to make a real difference.
Money gets you heard, and I have alot of ideas about how to help poverty, since I have lived in it for my entire adult life. (coming from a modest middle class family, it is still a shock to me to differences between middle class & poor...much less the wealthy and poor)

While the second or third thought for me is how nice it would be to OWN my home, and be able to have my pet projects there. I don't think I would live all that differently, just enjoy everything being paid for. Shopping would get old.
but I would have more time to write my book, play with outher ideas. Create my retreat center in the wine country, etc...lots of ideas, all would in some way offer assistance to my fellow man. Altruism 101

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

30. Hell Fuckin Yeah. 200 Mil Would Be Nice.

[Selatius]

31. It would make paying off the debts and bills a lot easier.

Then I could actually do something constructive, like start a labor co-op enterprise with several workers.