The Wretched Rich – Wealth #4
You will have to live with the fact that today is day $4 of our Wealth Series!
Are The Rich Different?
I don’t think they are. I think they just have more ways to get in trouble than the average Joe or Josephine. Where I might be able to splurge on a new TV I really shouldn’t buy. A wealthy person can splurge on a new mansion full of TVs or if REALLY wealthy, a whole TV station.
Dead Broke
In an interview recently, Hillary Clinton said that when they left the White House they were dead broke. The reason it turned into a gaffe was that the ‘Clinton’s ‘dead broke’ and the average American’s ‘dead broke’ is vastly different. They were still able to buy a huge house in a very tony area of the New York suburbs. They both had the ability to lecture for $200,000.00 dollars a pop. They both had the ability get paid to sit on corporate boards or start foundations that would pay them. They may have had a cash flow issue, even the biggest and brightest companies and individuals can have that happen, but they were not dead broke.
Balance
And that’s what is meant in this quote. It would be wretched to be wealthy but still have a middle class approach to using money but have to live among those who indulge in an ostentatious and garish use of money. Of course all wealthy people aren’t that way. Warren Buffett is one of the wealthiest men in the world and he still lives in the modest house he was born and raised in in Omaha, Nebraska. That is one of the main reasons he is about as popular of a wealthy person as you will ever find.
OK, I’ll Take the Chance
The last few ‘wealth’ posts I did last week got responses where the contributor said something like, “Yes, it could be a problem being wealthy, but I think I would take the chance.” Me too. I would be willing to try being super wealthy, running the wretched risk. But I would always want to remember that whatever I am not, good and bad, will only be increased with great wealth.
It’s a good reason to practice the good and put away the bad as often as possible….just in case the wealth comes in!
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Logan Pearsall Smith, 1865 – 1946, American-born British essayist and critic.
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“The wretchedness of being rich is that you have to live among rich people”
