Lots of people have difficulty thinking about what being wealthy means. Let me get anecdotal, because I prefer stories anyway.
When I was in elementary school, my bus route typically went in one direction, but sometimes the driver would run his circular route in reverse and this meant we'd drive by the local amusement park. As a kid, we all thought this was the best place ever. Amusement rides, Roller rink. A ballroom. Just awesome.
Anyway, it became our standard of wealth. The kids all bragged that when they grew up, they would own Lincoln Park. It was the richest, best thing we could imagine.
Of course, the park leaked money like mad and was constantly operated at a loss and was in fact, not worth nearly as much as we thought it would be. Look at the article. It is like a graveyard, now.
This is what wealth looks like when you are poor. It is flashy and huge and full of lights and fun - lollipops and rainbows and rides. This isn't what wealth actually is. Flash is flash. Wealth is often invisible.
Summer houses. Second or third cars. Big houses. Vacations. Expensive neighborhoods. High ticket hobbies. Yachts. These things can be on loans, or worked for, and often come in at a balance of under a million. Someone has spent money to get them. They are not the measure of having money.
The person with the flash is like the owner of the Amusement park. Maybe they are rich, and maybe they are struggling with debt. It is often impossible to tell before everything falls apart.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-04-03 04:39 pm (UTC)When I was in elementary school, my bus route typically went in one direction, but sometimes the driver would run his circular route in reverse and this meant we'd drive by the local amusement park. As a kid, we all thought this was the best place ever. Amusement rides, Roller rink. A ballroom. Just awesome.
Anyway, it became our standard of wealth. The kids all bragged that when they grew up, they would own Lincoln Park. It was the richest, best thing we could imagine.
Of course, the park leaked money like mad and was constantly operated at a loss and was in fact, not worth nearly as much as we thought it would be. Look at the article. It is like a graveyard, now.
This is what wealth looks like when you are poor. It is flashy and huge and full of lights and fun - lollipops and rainbows and rides. This isn't what wealth actually is. Flash is flash. Wealth is often invisible.
Summer houses. Second or third cars. Big houses. Vacations. Expensive neighborhoods. High ticket hobbies. Yachts. These things can be on loans, or worked for, and often come in at a balance of under a million. Someone has spent money to get them. They are not the measure of having money.
The person with the flash is like the owner of the Amusement park. Maybe they are rich, and maybe they are struggling with debt. It is often impossible to tell before everything falls apart.