I’m Rich and I’m NOT Apologizing!

Nor do you need to apologize. I think that deep down, the people that are critical of you for your wealth are simply jealous.

Thanks. I realize that too.

When I didn’t have what I have now I was jealous too.

The idea of being jealous of anyone because they claim to have money is inane. Could not possibly care less about the lives of others.

I'm jealous and I'm not apologizing

I don’t know that I could be envious of anyone else because of their wealth or lack of it, I prefer to think of myself as comfortable in my mind wealth isn’t measured by possessions, rather by the quality of the relationships that I have with my family and friends.

Suggs,

Great response!

I’m jealous of your wit!

Congratulations for keeping a good attitude, taking responsibility for your life and toughing it out. It's how you make your own life luck.

“Behind every great fortune is an equally great crime” ~ Balzac.

In our capitalist system, great individual fortunes are generated by business. The question then becomes when are business profits a crime?

Business profits in our system are in most cases result of collusion, history shows that big business and big government can collude to keep profits flowing to the former and contributions flowing to the latter.

Some in the system will benefit from this form of profit and will defend the system because of it.

Nobody in their right mind would believe that the large fortunes and opulence of Robber Barons, Fat Cats, Capitalist Pigs etc. can be attained just by being an honest hard working person.

As long as you drop a few dollars in the impoverished G strings you should have nothing but pride. Deep down everyone knows having money is better than not having money. That certainly is my experience.

Talking about rich, it's insane some of the contracts various NBA players are getting where they are averaging over $30-million per year - gotta admit I'm a bit jealous and feels a bit unfair

Stupid people pay to make useless athletes wealthy.

I'm not rich. I'm not poor. I'm not apologizing I'm not complaining.

Life is good.

Think I'll go visit a strip club soon.

Not sure if I qualify as “rich” but in comparing myself to friends, co-workers, and neighbors who’ve discussed finances with me I know I’m way above average. It’s taken more than 30 years in the workforce, saving and investing wisely and most of all — spending wisely — all while not making a hefty salary but being well-compensated just the same. I don’t know if a lot of people are “jealous” of wealthier folks, they’re certainly envious, as am I. But I do find many people in my circle who live paycheck to paycheck and have little retirement savings spend on items I would consider frivolous. Likewise, they would probably think spending on strippers, sex workers, etc., is a waste (if they actually knew I did this. LOL!) I guess it all comes down to what’s important to you. I have few interests other than women, so I spend much on my disposable income on what I consider one of life’s greatest pleasures. Being able to do it while still maintaining my level of wealth tells me I’m doing it right in comparison to my friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc.

CJKent,

“Behind every great fortune is an equally great crime” ~ Balzac

How seriously can you take a guy named “Ball Sack?”

Rich people who are obsessed with status possessions, who don't read and who don't have a social conscious, are somewhere between boring and repulsive.

Americans are obsessed with wealth and the word "success" really means "wealthy" in the mind of most Americans. How else can you explain why Jeff Epstein -- a pedophile and college-dropout -- was able to mingle with the social elite? Because he owned expensive "stuff." Also partially explains why an ignorant bigot and misogynist like Trump was elected.

I personally associate "success" with those who climb to the top of their profession -- whether it be medicine, physics, English literature, or sociology. Particularly admire academics and, for example, admire top law professors far more than some rich ambulance-chaser or medical-malpractice hack.

Important example of what @CJ is referring to is the great recession of 2008. It was caused by Wall Street guys slicing and dicing dogshit mortgages into securities, getting them rated AAA, and selling them to unsuspecting, innocent, pension funds all over the world. When the shit began to fall, we were forced to bail out the investment banks on the back of the taxpayer. Because sometimes you have to rescue the arsonist to save teh whole burning theater. Liz Warren understands what happened better than any of the candidates and partially why I admire her. Only one minor Wall Street player went to jail and most other execs walked away with fortunes.

Anyway @Reverend you seem a little too obsessed with material wealth and the OP is a little cringeworthy.

Law professors who suck the life out of the taxpayer are a great role mopdel for progressives. Thise who can do; those who cannot teach. The great recession of 2008 was caused by the greed of the average american. I watched greedy bastard, after greedy bastard, take out loans they couldn't afford and use the funds to buy things. Only greedy people can get cheated and they were. Liz Warren lol. A woman who lied about her heritage to her advantage; her lies about her heritage as a professor caused Harvard to receive extra Federal Funds and all of her "plans" are simply buying votes. She didn't get rich working, she got rich off the taxpayer. Very progressive, but I will take the scumbag Trump over the reprehensible lying cheater named pocahontas. The rich suck and the poor suck worse.

Law professors generally play a very important role in moving our country forward. Teaching is important, but so is helping to advance theory.

And Balzac was a very smart man.

SJG

Ordinary citizens who took on too much debt went bankrupt. Taxpayers were forced to bail out Wall Street firms that were levered about 35-to-1 and participated in massive fraud. They were allowed to walk away from the crisis with fortunes. I've read about five books on the financial crisis, @SkiBirther. Most recent is the short book by Bernanke, Geitner, and Paulson. You should read it instead of talking out of your ass.

Harvard claims that Warren didn't get the benefit of affirmative action. Even if she did, I personally forgive her and think she's an intelligent woman. Seems like all of these candidates have skeletons of one form or another.

leveraged*

Very pleased when I saw that Massachusetts had elected her to the Senate.

SJG

@rhb- So who has asked you to apologize for being rich ? (I'm not talking politicians making sound bites, I mean someone talking to your face ) . Secondly, what income level, and/or net worth level would you consider to be rich ?

@rhb “You should decide whether something makes sense by its content, not by the person who says it, regardless of his name, the letters after his name, or his title or position in society.”

“I sat down to dinner with the masters of society, and with the wives and daughters of the masters of society. The women were gowned beautifully, I admit; but to my naive surprise I discovered that they were of the same clay as all the rest of the women I had known down below in the cellar of society. “The colonel’s lady and Judy O’Grady were sisters under their skins”— and gowns.”

“It was not this, however, so much as their materialism, that shocked me. It is true, these beautifully gowned, beautiful women prattled sweet little ideals and dear little moralities; but in spite of their prattle the dominant key of the life they lived was materialistic. And they were so sentimentally selfish! They assisted in all kinds of sweet little charities, and informed one of the fact, while all the time the food they ate and the beautiful clothes they wore were bought out of dividends stained with the blood of child labour, and sweated labour, and of prostitution itself.”

“When I mentioned such facts, expecting in my innocence that these sisters of Judy O’Grady would at once strip off their blood-dyed silks and jewels, they became excited and angry, and read me preachments about the lack of thrift, the drink, and the innate depravity that caused all the misery in society’s cellar.”

“When I mentioned that I couldn’t quite see that it was the lack of thrift, the intemperance, and the depravity of a half-starved child of six that made it work twelve hours every night in a Southern cotton mill, these sisters of Judy O’Grady attacked my private life and called me an “agitator”— as though that, forsooth, settled the argument.”

From “What Life Means to Me” by Jack London. Newton, Iowa. November 1905.

As horrible as the sweatshops in third world countries are, they are a step up for most of the people who work in them.

This is astounding and wholly unexpected viewpoint not my opinion. I’ve never had to work in a “sweat shop.” This is the view expressed to me by people who have actually worked in sweatshops.

I would favor doing away with sweatshops if we could improve the lives of the people who work in them. But closing down the sweatshops will not improve their lives. Better social programs and less corruption in their home countries would improve their lives (eventually).

Before you try to lecture me about these issues, be forewarned that my role as a lawyer in third world countries gave me an excellent personal view of the horrors the people you pretend to understand and with whom you pretend to commiserate must really endure.

I am on a first name basis with plenty of them.

I done a lot more for poor people in some third world countries than strike a few sensitive poses and drop a few quotes from books I’ve read.

Until you’ve had your boots on the ground, rolled your sleeves up and got your hands dirty, just shut up rather than expose your ignorance.

Until you get that gold-plated toilet to shit in, @Reverend, I don't consider you all that rich.

It’s funny but I’ve been poor and I’ve been rich and everything in between. I grew up in a family of 6 living in an unheated cellar ( one fireplace). On the other end I became obsessed with a stripper/addict who was 40 years my junior and dropped about $300k keeping her happy without impacting my standard of living. I have friends who could sit down tonight and write a check for a million and it would clear at the bank in the morning. I’ve got healthy and wealthy children and grand-kids in elementary school with trust funds waiting for them to age. Today, my debit card was used by someone other than me about 15 times which had me sitting in a bank for 2 hours. I just checked my bank balance and I have $3.57. I have no investments, owe more than my car is worth and have about $230,000 in debt and I don’t care. I’ve got a very adequate income and Life goes on. I’ve got a very hot Latina meeting me OTC sometime in the next week. She’s 26 or 27 and I’m 73. Lying naked with her I’ll be wealthy again (so long as I can get it up).

@rhb

Quotations are used by me as a means of inspiration and to invoke philosophical thoughts from the reader.

Pragmatically speaking, quotations can also be used as language games (in the Wittgensteinian sense of the term) to manipulate social order and the structure of society

“Like everything metaphysical the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language.”

~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig said it all.

There's a reason why " thou shalt not covet" is one of Gods commandments. 2 of the seven deadly sins are greed and envy.

Greed/covetousness and envy are rotten for the soul - i have no respect/admiration for the rich nor sympathy for the poor/struggling who exhibit these traits.

With that being said, I disdain the current fashionable trend of demonizing wealth and financial success. There are good rich people and rotten poor people. Nothing wrong with enjoying comforts you can afford and having an elevated standard of living as a result of industrious work and taking smart calculated risks.

Even with the current crop of social programs and welfare

....the entitled masses still demand more and more wealth confiscation to fund even more entitlements. When does it end? When are the masses finally content? The answer is never....greed as currently exhibited by the masses is never satisfied...but the current crop of socialist politicians are perfectly fine with promising the world to everyone so long as it means more power to them....even if leads the country to misery and destitution as socialism always ends up doing....

Not to get off topic, but @Gawker, can you post some photos of that hot Latina after you see her? I have a thing for hot, young Latinas.

“I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven...” Matthew 19:23-26

“The saying was a response to a young rich man who had asked Jesus what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied that he should keep the commandments, to which the man stated he had done.

Jesus responded, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." The young man became sad and was unwilling to do this...

Jayn2018, our economic system does not work because the rules are based on scarcity, whereas the reality has long been gross surplus.

So you and some others are doing well and want to make sure it stays that way. Well tough shit, things are going to change, they have to.

At this point we really have no choice but to go a large degree of socialism. Doesn't matter whether you like it or not.

SJG

Daniel Castro - I'll Play The Blues For You youtube.com

Consider: Biopower : Foucault and beyond / edited by Vernon W. Cisney and Nicolae Morar (2016)

and Michel Foucault : key concepts / edited by Dianna Taylor