What does it mean to you to be rich?

[ChalengeGuyFan]

health, physical and mental comfort, spirit of adventure

Whichever is the amount of money that can thoroughly satisfy these needs, that is what would make me rich.

(Of course, I'm referring to my needs and my family's)

 

[EA Gold]

To love God.
To love people in general.
Revealing the truth of Christ to the world.

To see the world and make things right which were wrong.
Living an abundant life which my family can also enjoy and many more.
Being generous to the poor and needy.

To make amends for the past and to be forgiving.
To Live a quiet and peaceable life.

 

[OzyBoy]

To me being rich is not about having lots of money in the bank, driving fancy cars and living in an expensive house. If i can live a simple life without having to worry about things very much then that is enough to make me feel rich. This is how i am starting to feel like at the moment. Why do i need anything else? :rock:

 

[El Indio G]

For me it means being able to eat and have everybody in my circle eat equally and having a surplus of resources to do what I want or need.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Money DOES represent the direct contribution a person makes to society as a whole.

What about artists? What about inventors? What about motivational speakers and counselors? What about protesters who stand against abuse and injustice? What about mathematicians, teachers, the founders of Wikipedia? They have little to no money, yet they contribute.

Explain how you can have no money, yet you can still contribute to society.

 

[PappyS]

Money DOES represent the direct contribution a person makes to society as a whole.

A lot of people make their money on others' backs. They don't contribute, they take. I can provide lots of examples if you'd like.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Artists get paid, so do inventors.

Van Gogh was fvcking poor, Edgar Allan Poe was fvcking poor, there's many cases of poor but well known artists. Inventors, do you mean the ones who stole inventions and commercialized them like Thomas Edison, or the ones who actually invented such devices like Nikolai Tesla, Hans Lippershey, Antonio Meucci? Sure you can give credit to the crooks for popularizing them, but they had to steal the work from someone else to popularize in the first place.

Protesting is not a job. It does not belong in this discussion at all.

It does. Protesters are persons who made a difference, without money. Maybe you would like to examine your history books on the American Revolutions and so forth for people who made a difference without money. Key word: Without money, as in they didn't get paid to do so.

Most people that contribute to society through their labor with no money to show for it, have spent it poorly.

You're not the one to make that judgment.

People are so slow to realize that the more money you feed to poverty, the larger it gets.

Such a simple way of thinking.

 

[Alle_Gory]

They protested for a cause. Protests do not create wealth. Work and production creates wealth. If you want to pay someone to protest something you believe in, that would be a great way to put into practice your belief system.

We are not discussing wealth. We are discussing a person's value to society. Wealth is an important part of society, wealth is not society and society is not wealth. Understand the difference.

In this case, the protesters have had a very valuable part in society. So much so that they founded a new one. And they didn't get paid for it. Egads! Can such a thing be? Not according to your value system.

Consider someone like Martin Luther King. A protester, but his actions and his life were worthless according to your value system. He didn't have much money, therefore no direct contribution to society. Do you agree with this statement? Why not?

Let's put your value system to a simple test. That a person's value is determined on how much money they have/make::

You need a car. You have $1000. You have a choice in between a friend who can get you a car for $1000 and a dealer who can get you a car for $500 and the other $500 he pockets for his service. Who has more value to you? Your friend who makes no money but delivers you a car for $1000 or the dealer who is now $500 more valuable as a person but can only deliver you a $500 car.

So which person has more value?

One thing to always keep in mind is that if you want more of something, you subsidize it. If you want less of it, you tax it.

You can not tax people for being poor. That just makes them more poor and now in debt. You are suggesting slavery of the lower class.

 

[snowdog]

You need a car. You have $1000. You have a choice in between a friend who can get you a car for $1000 and a dealer who can get you a car for $500 and the other $500 he pockets for his service. Who has more value to you? Your friend who makes no money but delivers you a car for $1000 or the dealer who is now $500 more valuable as a person but can only deliver you a $500 car.

One of life's top 5 rules: never buy stuff from friends. Especially something like a car, which at that price point inevitably will have problems tomorrow if not today. Buying things from friends is the best way to ruin a friendship.

Besides, buying at a dealer (given it's a good one) has the benefits you can go back if you have problems. There are good dealers out there; not everyone who runs a business is out there to rip you off. Believe it or not, there are still good people in the world, you know?



Back on topic; I'll admit right away I like nice things. Who doesn't? The thing is that I only go by my own standards.

I love my super-high end hi-fi system every time I turn it on. It had cost the first owner a couple of thousand bucks in the eighties when he bought it new and he put at least a couple of hundred in it through the years maintaining it. They are these huge, heavy, metal separate components. Hooked up are two big tower speakers by KEF, also from the eighties. I spent a couple hundred on it, and it sounds better than the sets pretty much anyone I know has. There are no fancy displays and iPod docks. Just a few industrial-class buttons and a knob for the volume and an "on" light. It's probably no 'status symbol' to pretty much everyone now. But hell am I happy with it.

I drive an Alfa Romeo because it's way more fun than anything else normal money can buy out there. It may not be as practical or as cool as a luxury brand to most people, but hell am I having fun every time I drive it hard. That's the only way to properly drive an Alfa, by the way. They break down if you take it easy on them. Drive the sh*t out of them and have as much fun as you possibly can and they will last you longer that you'd expect. And no, I don't put gay exhausts, subwoofers, big rims, fins or spoilers on it. I'm not insecure about my d1ck size. It's a car from 1997 with faded paint. But hey, it's fun! 130.000 miles and still going. If this one is used up I'll get another 2nd hand one.

When I have enough money I'll probably buy a nice plasma TV, because I like watching movies every now and then. For now, the old crt tube still works fine. My current main computer is a 10" netbook. In a couple of months I'll get home and use my desktop again, which is a nice standard computer. Nothing too fancy.

I have a couple of watches. I inherited from my grandfather the only really expensive one I have. The one I have been wearing every day for over 10 years now is a watch I got for my birthday. It was probably around 200 bucks, if that. I love it and I will probably never replace it. Another favorite of mine is the $15 digital Casio, which I have had for 5 years now. I wear that one if I go do something that could break it.

The only things I spend serious money on are my two main hobbies. Electric guitars and photography. I enjoy this a lot, so for me, it's a good destination for it.


All of this is great. But it's nothing compared to good health. I wouldn't give a sh*t about all of this if I'd hear I have cancer or something.

In the end, the best thing you can do with your money is to travel around. See the world, experience life. When I get out of college and start making good money, I probably won't buy a big house. I don't need it. I'll just live humble outside of the city and travel and have as much fun as possible. My dream is to have a job where I live somewhere for a couple of years, and then move to a completely different place. Who knows what'll happen.

 

[englishman]

Hey Snowdog, Alpha Romeo, 80's stereo with industrial grade knobs, and world travel. Sounds fvcin good to me!

 

[allbeef]

Basically being able to rent a room in the office building I work at. A room I could just go to and jerk off in peace whenever I wanted to. Preferably with a view of people walking down below as I squirted all over the highly reflective tinted windows. I would also put a little bar in the room. Maybe a toilet so that I could pee after taking care of myself. I would then sit back in a reclining chair with a drink in my hand and watch the results of my labor run down the window.

The rest of you are so full of s---. A bunch of trolls talking out of your azzes. All any of you want is to release yourselves and drink. Admit it.

 

[Kerpal]

Basically being able to rent a room in the office building I work at. A room I could just go to and jerk off in peace whenever I wanted to. Preferably with a view of people walking down below as I squirted all over the highly reflective tinted windows. I would also put a little bar in the room. Maybe a toilet so that I could pee after taking care of myself. I would then sit back in a reclining chair with a drink in my hand and watch the results of my labor run down the window.

:crackup:

 

[englishman]

Basically being able to rent a room in the office building I work at. A room I could just go to and jerk off in peace whenever I wanted to. Preferably with a view of people walking down below as I squirted all over the highly reflective tinted windows. I would also put a little bar in the room. Maybe a toilet so that I could pee after taking care of myself. I would then sit back in a reclining chair with a drink in my hand and watch the results of my labor run down the window.

The rest of you are so full of s---. A bunch of trolls talking out of your azzes. All any of you want is to release yourselves and drink. Admit it.

Sounds fvkin ace...

 

[EA Gold]

Basically being able to rent a room in the office building I work at. A room I could just go to and jerk off in peace whenever I wanted to. Preferably with a view of people walking down below as I squirted all over the highly reflective tinted windows. I would also put a little bar in the room. Maybe a toilet so that I could pee after taking care of myself. I would then sit back in a reclining chair with a drink in my hand and watch the results of my labor run down the window.

The rest of you are so full of s---. A bunch of trolls talking out of your azzes. All any of you want is to release yourselves and drink. Admit it.

Living an entire life of selfishness and cruelty, one day you'll be in a world where there's nothing but selfishness and cruelty.

 

[allbeef]

Living an entire life of selfishness and cruelty, one day you'll be in a world where there's nothing but selfishness and cruelty.

Cruelty? What is cruel about jerking off in privacy? If more men jerked off at least three times a day there would be less war and hate on this planet. Jerking beats getting a hooker or stripper. No animals are harmed. No lives lost.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tEXNzqmKg4
The Soviets placed such commercials in Tallinn to keep the Estonians from rebelling and breaking away. After watching this the only product I need is some Kleenex to clean up my keyboard.

 

[azanon]

I define rich as simply being financially independent. If you have to work to make ends meet (whether you want to or not), then you're not rich, IMO. Obviously, I'm taking a financial viewpoint to the concept.

I'm working towards this goal, and should be there before 60.

 

[azanon]

You don'

 

[Quiksilver]

Living an entire life of selfishness and cruelty, one day you'll be in a world where there's nothing but selfishness and cruelty.

How do you find selfishness and cruelty synonymous?

Selfishness is to put ones personal values and interests (whatever they may be) ahead of the values and interests of others.

Everybody who has (with evidence) done anything of positive note in history has acted out of self-interest.

Also, to love people in general ... ? ... Your standards of love are shockingly low, down to that of a beggar prostitute who will open her legs for anybody with a nickel.

I only love people who act in victimless self-interest; who puts their values and desires ahead of everything else, as long as they require no victims to achieve their values and desires.

Hmm?

 

[azanon]

To love God.
To love people in general.
Revealing the truth of Christ to the world.

Snap out of it, man! To be blissfully ignorant is so overrated.

If only it were that easy. AFAIK, I haven't successfully freed even one person's mind from this drone mentality.

 

[snowdog]

Basically being able to rent a room in the office building I work at. A room I could just go to and jerk off in peace whenever I wanted to. Preferably with a view of people walking down below as I squirted all over the highly reflective tinted windows. I would also put a little bar in the room. Maybe a toilet so that I could pee after taking care of myself. I would then sit back in a reclining chair with a drink in my hand and watch the results of my labor run down the window.

The rest of you are so full of s---. A bunch of trolls talking out of your azzes. All any of you want is to release yourselves and drink. Admit it.

Hahaha that's good.