In defense of the rich
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I’ve felt rich when I had $5 in my pocket. Does that mean that being rich depends on how you feel, or does it mean you have a million dollars?
A millionaire might not feel rich compared to Bill Gates.
He might feel that he’s the down-to-earth, working guy, while Gates has much more than he deserves.
Gates has his money because he did the hard work, in the right place, at the right time. He didn’t stop when his snowball got big. He kept pushing it until it grew monstrous, and he hasn’t stopped pushing yet. The snowball varies in size because of the melting and subsequent snowing of the natural laws, the economic weather.
Education has something to do with being rich. Don’t tell me Gates got rich because his parents were wealthy and Gates was educated in the best of schools. Motivation is the key. Gates could have easily let it slide, earned poor grades and goofed off during his educational years. He could have inherited his parents’ money, then blown it all and become a working pauper like the rest of us. Many people do that. Yet a person with poor parents, in a poor school district — but with motivation — can do extra work, read books and get as fat an education as they want to. An employer cannot turn down a person who is at the top in their field.
My parents weren’t rich, but I had all the educational opportunities in the world, and could have attended any of the best colleges in the country. I applied myself in elementary school but after that, I let it slide and only earned good grades in courses that I liked, such as metal shop and auto shop. The rest of the required courses only inspired me to get Ds.
My grandmother told me that if I didn’t do well in school, I’d become a ditch digger. Now that’s what I like to do. I enjoy digging ditches with a pick and shovel. I enjoy the challenge of removing a big rock, no matter how large. Maybe if I had enjoyed the challenge of doing well in a course that was not to my liking, I’d be rich right now.
But then it comes back to the question, “what is rich?”
I have concluded that rich is whoever has more than you.
If I have a car and the guy next to me doesn’t, then I am rich.
And there is the problem: envy. If there were no envy, nobody would be grousing about the guy that has more.
A Wall Street executive earned a $10 million bonus, and people were mad at him. If those monies were divided among 3 million people in the United States, it would be $33.33 each. I say forget the $33 and let a guy get rich. Let him have his bonus. I’m happy for him.
So when you see one of those big motor homes going by, towing a car, don’t get envious. I, too, have a twinge of envy when I see one. Let’s be happy for them. They spend a lot of money on diesel fuel. And that motor home represents a lot of skilled labor.
If you spend tons of time studying in school and became the top in your field, you might even become the owner of the motor home company, or one of the skilled laborers that helped build it. People that have money will pay a lot to people that do the best work.
So the next time you look at someone that has more than you do, don’t grouse about it. The guy behind you might be grousing about you having more than he does.
