Showing posts with label The Poverty of Wealth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Poverty of Wealth. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 1

The Poverty of Wealth

My life began on Halloween in 1947 and some might say that it was an auspicious occasion...  but, I say it was another one of those days when nothing out of the ordinary really happened...  I grew up in Alexandria, VA although my recorded place of birth was Raleigh, North Carolina and attended high school in Cairo, Egypt after which there was college, the military, more college, and a less than stellar 45 years of retirement before retirement got my goat.

Throughout my lifetime or call it what you will, I have experienced the following:

  1. a life of wealth and privilege
  2. a life of poverty and despair
  3. a life with servants and cooks
  4. several trips throughout Europe and the Middle East
  5. several Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Hawaiian cruises
  6. travels all over the United States
  7. heart attack and cancer treatments
  8. the sheer panic of almost dying in the ER
  9. living from paycheck to paycheck
  10. middle aged work as a hourly worker/laborer
  11. the frustration and depression of unemployment
  12. the constant lies of all politicians
  13. the incompetent decisions of upper management
  14. the harsh treatment of production quotas
  15. the insane arrogance of the wealthy
  16. the insincerity of both men and women
  17. the lives wasted by fighting foreign wars
  18. the demonstrations of civil disobedience
  19. law enforcement people breaking the law
  20. the stupidity of debt and becoming debt free
Not many people can say that they have done or experienced what I have done and there are no doubt many people who have done and/or accomplished much more than I... but my situation is good enough for me to say that I am simply glad and fortunate that I am not wealthy and will die almost in poverty...

Life is not about fighting wars, becoming wealthy, going to college, or earning as much money as you can for doing as little as you can.  Life is about life and living free and truly understanding what they freedom means...  and, that cannot be accomplished or experienced if you are blessed with wealth.

The more wealth and possessions you have the deeper into poverty you sink just like the sinker on the end of a fishing line.  The more knowledge you have the less you truly understand because academic knowledge is based on the thoughts of others and never on your own, otherwise you would be teaching the class and not someone else.

Knowledge can be found anywhere and especially now since we have the internet...  and knowledge is no longer limited to a college degree targeting a specific major but whatever you want to learn and understand...  it is all there...  for free...  except a monthly access fee which is a hell of a lot cheaper than going to college or university.

And, if you can go to college, you are smart and capable enough of teaching yourself!!!

The more wealth that one has the more wealth that one continues to want...  what is owned now is never enough...  a wealth addict is what you turn out to be...  wealth control you more than you control wealth which is why you can never stop...  look it up on the internet and see what disease you have if you don't believe me.

The moment you die you are as poor as you were at birth...  nothing has changed...  except you gained a lot of arrogance and were consumed by a will that was not your own...  but as old as life itself as well educated scientists are still trying to figure out HOW IT ALL STARTED...  their education has left them powerless to do anything more than speculate and form opinions based upon speculation and conjecture...  How smart has their educated lives become?

You don't need academic knowledge to become intelligent
You don't need wealth to become wealthy
You don't need life to learn how to die