What's Rich?

What's Rich?

I think it depends on where you stand yourself. If you make K1000 a month, anyone making K3000 is going to be rich from your point of view.

It's really interesting for me because it includes more or less three groups of people;

1. People who have a low net worth and possibly live hand to mouth, but a massive chunk of their income goes to luxuries. This is basically the middle class

2. Actual burgeois although I a lot of the time I use words other than rich to describe them

3. Those who do make quite a bit of money but still not enough, so they identify themselves as the poor working class

I find this dynamic interesting because often times people tell me about how unsavoury the rich are while I consider them rich. I ask this question a lot because often times how people use the word rich gives me a lot of insight into their own views on society.

Perhaps it's only a definition used to distinguish between the working and the non working? Or a broader spectrum which criticizes those who earn but pay for lots of amenities in their life? I'm always interested in what people's definitions might be.

At the very least could it be someone that wouldn't be screwed if they were fired (for 6 months)?  Someone who could still live a healthy life with no loss of social connections? A person who has s a reliable social network so they effortlessly get back to work if they wanted?

Another way to look at it could be: a rich person has stuff they do not use, like capital. Somehow this definition doesn't really fit because if someone has hundreds of thousands at their disposal, but doesn't convert them into real life assets (houses, cars, and all that other useless stuff) are they still rich? ...at the very least they wouldn't be a parasite. I don't know.

Anyone who has enough resources that they can detach from the daily issues many regular people encounter in life could be considered rich. Whenever they have the luxury of;

- not having to make decisions between work and family in emergencies
- never having a fear that they will not have access to a home/food/etc.
- never having to make a monetary choice between two things, e.g. food or    medical bills
- never having to worry about the cost of surgery
- having their lifestyle in general never dictated by monetary restrictions,          only by preference

Someone once articulated rich to me as anyone who can give without expecting reciprocity or payment (money, time, attention, love, that kind of thing).

I grew up "not rich" by the global standard. As I got older, I explored my country and a few others too. I observed the less fortunate in my own country and felt lucky. Then I went further into the trenches, places where people had no plumbing, no electricity, even a single well for an entire community. Yet for some reason I couldn't fathom, these people were happy and fulfilled. They made it through day to day like they always had. Who am I to not consider them rich?

While there in the deepest of trenches, I lent a hand to to dig a new well. The only one in the whole community was bled dry. It was 4 days of grueling manual labor. All of us did it. Not one of us complained. It dawned on me, maybe for the first time, how fortunate I was.

I personally feel that the rich are the givers. My uncle who I saw as a child give a homeless man his last K10, because he knew he had food at home and the homeless man didn't. If you can, AND DO, help those with less stand a little taller, you are rich. 

The term "Rich" could imply wealth and success. Or it could mean emotional fulfillment. I feel that a truly "rich" person has both.

We can't succeed as a society until we are all rich, not necessarily wealthy. If everyone had consistent meals, water, shelter, and access to medical amenities, I guess I would be more willing to support the idea of billionaires. Sadly, I don't.

I'm good with one person having a K30M house but the poorest has to at the very least have something too. If you ask me, the problem's never been with wealth itself, or a lack of it, it's always been the way in which we treat those without it.

Dubai is wealthy, but by no means rich. Same for China. They both have a greater GDP than Norway, for example, but Norway is still richer in my mind. They help their less privelleged, they embrace love, they are at peace...

So, what's my definition of rich? My definition is not being a pretentious a****** and being able to lend a hand. Not having to worry about the most basic of human needs, or at the very least, what I personally consider to be basic needs.

Rich is being able to love without fear.