Tag: Wealth

Perception, Wealth & Reality [Article]

Mr. Money Moustache shines the light on two wealthy folks who wrote in to him, The Quitting Lawyer and the Despondent Millionaire. The perspective we have on wealth is only a reflection of our perception of our own self-worth, he concludes.

The exact same world can seem like an evil or beautiful place, based purely on how you choose to think about it. And paradoxically enough, changing the perspective (and thus the behavior) of enough people can even change the physical reality of the world for the better. That makes “just changing your perspective” into a pretty powerful tool.

The Politics of Envy [Article]

George Monbiot quotes Robert and Edward Skidelsky while writing about the Politics of Envy in the Guardian:

“Capitalism rests precisely on this endless expansion of wants. That is why, for all its success, it remains so unloved. It has given us wealth beyond measure, but has taken away the chief benefit of wealth: the consciousness of having enough … The vanishing of all intrinsic ends leaves us with only two options: to be ahead or to be behind. Positional struggle is our fate.”

Another:

According to one of the Saudi prince AlWaleed’s former employees, the Forbes magazine global rich list is how he wants the world to judge his success or his stature. When Forbes estimated that the prince was actually worth $7 billion less than he said he was, he called me at home the day after the list was released, sounding nearly in tears. ‘What do you want?’ he pleaded, offering up his private banker in Switzerland. ‘Tell me what you need.'”

Tiny Details Exaggeration Syndrome [Article]

Despite all the good things you already have in your life, if you find yourself worrying about a few inconsequential ones, Mr. Money Moustache has an idea to Cure Yourself of Tiny Details Exaggeration Syndrome. The context is being able to live within your income.

One of the stranger patterns that I’ve noticed ever since reaching adulthood, is the tendency of humans to zoom in on increasingly irrelevant details as their material wealth increases.  Despite their advantaged position, people seem to become unaware of the wide variety of conditions in the world and their own ability as a human to deal with them. The results are both tragic and amusing.

Intended consequences? [Article]

The world’s rich & powerful meet every January to discuss ways, apparently, to alleviate the world’s manifold problems (or if you like conspiracies, to decide how to collectively direct the exploitation of the rest of the world). The Davos summit draws an eclectic mix of businessmen & politicians from around the world. If you ignored the mainstream media (controlled of course by those same rich folk), you may (or may not) be surprised to hear that, according to a recent Oxfam report, merely the increase in the wealth of the world’s top 100 wealthy people was enough to end the entire world’s poverty and still have 3/4ths left over. As the executive director of Oxfam notes, “We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many – too often the reverse is true.”