Title couldn’t say it all.
“The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”
~ Adam Smith
I'll add that in this country, the word "successful" is interchangeable with the word "wealthy." But in my mind, success means rising to the top of your chosen profession, whether it happens to be a lucrative profession, or not. For example, a Nobel Prize winner in literature is far more "successful" than a wealthy bond salesman, IMO.
Talentless people keep score with their wealth. One of the famous economists I follow describes the ultra-wealthy as some of the most insecure people on the planet.
OTOH, I do get tired of the mindless, annoying, cliche that if you're center-left you must also be a poverty-stricken leech.
What, you don't consider someone who got rich from AmWay as superior to someone who won the Nobel Literature Prize?
SJG
Are you still sugaring Randommember?
The men I see with a lot of money use it as their only asset and only have what and who they buy.
Money makes women more insecure coz it teaches then they need to buy more shit to not be insecure.
Things are impressive til you realize they don't really change much. Money buys comfort and security. Things people in real first world countries take for granted.
@Random Most people that I know are quite well off, but none of us measure our success in dollars and cents, what we really equate success with is having children that are happy healthy and doing well in their lives, that's how I measure my own success.
I don't envy the rich, any more than I find the poor noble. Good or bad, I earned all I have. I am satisfied.
I was referring to billionaires in my post, above. A kind of insecurity takes over: after you can buy as many gold-plated toilets as you want, the only thing left is "keeping score" with the other billionaires. Can't prove it, but this worship of the ultra-rich seems to be an American phenomenon. How else can you explain the rise of a truly stupid, corrupt, and worthless human being like Donald Trump? He's rich because of inherited wealth, but it doesn't seem to matter to his adoring base.
Donald Trump is a gem copared to sick, disgusting leeches like bernie Sanders who got rich off the taxpayer while being a fucking traitor.
@25
"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."
~ Albert Einstein
I agree fully, and this is what Capitalism is based on.
SJG