Thread Money Women(Or Men) Or Power

I agree with Eileen. When we were in Jamaica there are way more, what we consider poor, than middle class or rich. Those "poor" people are outwardly happier than people in America will ever be.

Simpler lives make happier lives. Yes, money can help... But it's not always the solution.

The issue seems to be more if you had money before and become poorer. When you've lived a life accustomed to a certain lifestyle, it's hard to change it. The same thing can (not definitely, but possible) happen when you suddenly get money. Lots of people who made money by themselves appreciate the value of a dollar and still spend way below their means even when they receive a ton of cash. Those who inherited money or won via lottery, not so much.
 
The issue seems to be more if you had money before and become poorer. When you've lived a life accustomed to a certain lifestyle, it's hard to change it. The same thing can (not definitely, but possible) happen when you suddenly get money. Lots of people who made money by themselves appreciate the value of a dollar and still spend way below their means even when they receive a ton of cash. Those who inherited money or won via lottery, not so much.
I think you hit the nail on the head. People for the most part have a difficult time dealing with changes in their lifestyles. It's like what happens when you have kids. Some people can adjust and others cannot.
 
I think you hit the nail on the head. People for the most part have a difficult time dealing with changes in their lifestyles. It's like what happens when you have kids. Some people can adjust and others cannot.

I admit, it has been very hard for me to adjust to losing half my income. Fortunately, I'm on my way back up to what I used to make.
 
I think we place way too much emphasis on the fancy car, designer clothes, bigger houses, better electronics to make us happy. I'm just saying that's not where it's at. I'll take the people I care about over a big house any day. I'm not saying that having a lot makes you a bad person incapable of love either. I'm not saying it makes you a better person or more enviable either. Happiness comes from inside you. You choose to be happy. Money has nothing to do with it.

A lot of that stuff does make people happy, which is why we pursue it. We like looking nice, and driving nice cars, and having smart phones and big high definition tvs hanging on our walls. It gives us the sense of comfort we all want. We like to look and feel nice. We like having a nice house to come home to after a sh*tty day at work and lying down on a big, comfortable sofa with a drink or going for a walk in the park.

The argument has nothing to do with "being a better person", so let's not get sidetracked. It has to do (as Chris already said) with removing the primary cause of stress in one's life: money and financial woe. Being poor prevents you from doing any (or most) of the things you want to be able to do to take care of yourself and your loved ones. And it's a massive, stressful, depressing pain in the ass.

It sucks to not be able to fix your car when it requires a repair. It sucks having to choose high deductible health insurance and car insurance in order to keep your premiums as low as possible, and then not being able to meet those deductibles when you need to. It sucks trying to provide medical and dental work for a child when you can't afford it. It isn't their fault you're poor. All they can do is be victimized by your lack of success. It sucks not being able to enroll your kid in extracurriculars. It sucks needing a credit card to handle life's unexpected circumstances, and then only being able to pay off a little of the balance each month and thereby wasting more precious money on interest. It sucks being forced to live in a sh*tty apartment. It sucks not being able to afford vacations when you live in a sh*tty apartment, because then even your staycation time is depressing. It sucks trying to date when you're broke. It sucks trying to provide for someone else's emotional health when you are constantly stressed out and depressed about paying bills. It sucks being well into adulthood and still having virtually nothing set aside for retirement, all but guaranteeing that your sh*tty life will continue unabated until you finally, pathetically drop dead with nothing to show for it except a kid who knows that the only thing they want out of life is to not be you when they grow up.

Money alleviates a metric sh*tload of the things about life that no one should ever, ever have to worry about. Life is enough of a headache without creditors kicking you in the nuts every week, every month, and every year. A good income that allows you to pay all of your bills each month while also setting aside an ever increasing pile of cash to pay for all of your mojitos on a beach some day is a life that everyone should have a chance to realize.

So again, money over power and love. Every day of the week. People in love can still be f*cking miserable.

That having been said, here is one of my favorite poems of all time:

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.


- Edwin Arlington Robinson

The moral? Money isn't everything. Don't spend so much time making a living that you forget to make a life.
 
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too many people working jobs that they hate.
I'm working on trying to fix that.
+1 on both

All this time in IT and I absolutely hate it. I have 2 jobs in the field and of everything I do my upholstery sidebusiness is the only work that I enjoy. I'm tired of being someone who produces nothing tangible while drawing a paycheck. Creating textiles and leather goods from nothing is incredibly rewarding. I love the looks and emails I get from people excited about what I've made/repaired for them.
 
+1 on both

All this time in IT and I absolutely hate it. I have 2 jobs in the field and of everything I do my upholstery sidebusiness is the only work that I enjoy. I'm tired of being someone who produces nothing tangible while drawing a paycheck. Creating textiles and leather goods from nothing is incredibly rewarding. I love the looks and emails I get from people excited about what I've made/repaired for them.

etsy your way to freedom from IT.
 
I have never done a job I hated. I've always been lucky that I either enjoyed what I did or managed to turn what i enjoyed into a living. For example, I learned to juggle for fun and parlayed it into a major entertainment agency, thus giving up a job I had started to dislike. Whenever I stopped enjoying what I did for a living, something else always came along.
 
I agree with Eileen. When we were in Jamaica there are way more, what we consider poor, than middle class or rich. Those "poor" people are outwardly happier than people in America will ever be.

Simpler lives make happier lives. Yes, money can help... But it's not always the solution.

Agree, too.
 
There are wealthy people who live simple lives every single day. The difference is that they don't have to worry about any of their basic needs, whereas the poor always have to worry about their basic needs on some level.
 
There are wealthy people who live simple lives every single day. The difference is that they don't have to worry about any of their basic needs, whereas the poor always have to worry about their basic needs on some level.

Stop with your logic, you are not Logicmo.
 
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