What does it mean to be rich?
 

The title says it all. Since I've found GIM and PMs I've rediscovered, I think, what it is to be rich. I think the rich are those who are able to go the longest with no wage. Those who are capable of losing their jobs and surviving X days longer than someone else.

Too often the rich are defined by those who have the highest salary. But more often than not, these people are also the most in debt or who the largest payments to make every month:

http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/13/maga...ymag/index.htm

I have no credit cards and no debt. But, I do not own my own house. Of course this, I think, is bad. The difference between me and most is that I intend to buy a chunk of land and move a trailer or some other cheap form onto it ... and pay with cash (a bit of gold really).

What is rich to you? How would you become rich and what is the best way to go about it? Assuming all debt is bad.... or is it?

Posted in SP because I spend most of my time here and SP is why I save gold and food :)

Re: What does it mean to be rich?
 

That is a good definition of wealth. Wealth=How long one has the ability to maintain without addition into the future. That is why Preservation of Capital is the #1 Rule of building Wealth.:beer: Becoming rich is something that just happens. Usually from the result of helping others meet their needs and/or goals.

Re: What does it mean to be rich?
 

This is one of the most important questions you can ask in this life because it has far reaching implications that effect every aspect of your existence.. and it is ABSOLUTELY survival related.

If you look at it in the grand scheme of things I don't believe being rich has anything to do with having toys or luxories. Technology levels and cultures change constantly but the core of what being wealthy means does not. To me these are the highlights, in no particular order.

1) secure shelter that you have undisputed ownership of
2) adequate supplies of healthy food, water and air
3) friends, family, children
4) freedom
5) peace
6) a sense of life, adventure, accomplishment or fufillment
7) self-sufficiency
8) health and hygeine
9) wisdom
10) ease of life, if there is work to be done it should be invigorating and engaging, never tedious toil. It should be rewarding to complete.

The only reason to do any work is to achieve these goals. One should strive to build renewable, sustainable systems that provide all these requirements in a manner harmonious with your neighbors and surrounding environment. The most significant point is that none of these things are scarcity-based, everyone on the whole planet could enjoy this concept of wealth simultaneously. It is a testament to cruelty and ignorance that this is not the current state of Man.

Re: What does it mean to be rich?
 

I wonder if the Top 1% invented all these feel-good-about-poverty Religions and Philosophies to keep the naive too distracted from competing with them for the real wealth.

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Their kids are eating steak and lobster tonight as we sit here considering moral/ethical values.

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Their kids are getting a tan in December as we talk about shopping at Wal-Mart

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Their kids will inherit the bank that our kids owe their student loans.

:smile: no offense intended

Re: What does it mean to be rich?
 

It is a materialist view that keeps people chained to the system the top created. An ethical, spiritual view is the antithesis of this system and a path to freedom.

Poverty and hardship have a unqiue role in spiritual life, they are a means of stripping away falsehoods and the lies we tell ourselves, a path to strength and rebirth. They are among other things a method of purification. Even if one was wealthy, in any sense, there is much to be gained by deliberately doing without at least on a periodic basis. Bounty and plentitude earned and carefully managed by honorable means are glorious things but gluttony, vanity and sensualism are not.

Re: What does it mean to be rich?
 

Very well put REV

:proud: