I have to say I’m not sure what they were hoping for, the discourse hasn’t felt overly mean by internet standards, but maybe that’s just my bubble. I’m sorry they died, but now that we know all the details it’s a bit like the guy that decided to hike up a lava field last year.
Also,
People’s fascination with the wealthy is fuelled by both curiosity and envy. And when rich people find themselves in trouble, it makes the rest of us feel better, Pamela Rutledge, director of the California-based Media Psychology Research Center, wrote in a piece about social media and the submersible for Psychology Today.
I feel like “outrage” should be in there somewhere. It makes me mad that people can be that dumb with a quarter of a million dollars while I’m just glad to have a safe roof over my head, and other people (like the mentioned boat migrants) aren’t even that lucky.
Alright, back off my soap box.
Yeah, I don’t particularly envy the ultra-rich. I love the idea of having enough money to not worry about money, but I want that for everyone, not just myself.
Agreed. I don’t envy them at all, in fact I think there’s evidence both anecdotal and scientific that being ultra-rich fucks you up quite seriously, and/or you need to be seriously fucked up to get that way. I actually pity them, to some degree. My pity is, however, eclipsed by my anger at a world that allows them to exist, in a cycle they perpetuate.
Frankly, I suspect pamela rutledge’s out-of-touch words suggest she is beholden to some of their interests. I see much less envy than I see anger at the ultra-rich.
There is a certain amount of schadenfreude when you see the ultra rich suffering some self imposed misfortune but when I see the 1% I really just think that they need to go against a wall while the collective takes their I’ll gotten gains to the tax man to socially distribute to those who need with housing then mental health and healthcare followed by education and jobs in infrastructure to bring our whole society into an environmentally friendly sustainable future.
Then again that is just a run on sentence of dreams.
You’d be amazed at how little it takes to be in “the 1%”. Going by total wealth (instead of income), the 1% is about 3.5 million dollars starting. That means your average small business owner likely qualifies as “the 1%”. Again, not quite where you really want to be addressing your ire.
The real abuse comes from, like, “the 0.1%” (starting at about 17 million) or maybe even “the 0.01%” (starting at about 78 million). And that means you’re going to be eating people who have multiple homes whose wealth comes primarily from exploitative investments, abusive tax loopholes and other such shitfuckery, not people who worked their entire lives to finally own the corner store they now run.
source: https://economics.princeton.edu/working-papers/top-wealth-in-america-new-estimates-under-heterogenous-returns/
Does the worry ever really go away? There is always someone trying to take your money. While I don’t know the life of the ultra-rich, I suspect that they have even more people trying to take their money than us average Joes. Perhaps with their resources they can hire a money manager to alleviate some of the worry, but then they have to worry if said manager will disappear into the night with their money; something that becomes increasingly attractive and worth the risk when the sums become large.
buhhh I’m sorry I tried to make this short, but it’s really complicated.
The worry can go away because it’s not tied inherently to money but rather an individual’s needs not being met. While that’s a problem every individual will struggle with to varying degrees, I see the ultra-rich lifestyle as one of the most difficult to overcome in this sense and in this case, “Richie” here is worried about the security of their perceived source of power, in simplest terms.
It’s not even the myriad of comforts one can afford that will continue to draw you away from the discomforts one must overcome for self-empowerment like “Richie’s” trust issues and lack of knowledge/understanding of the systems they’re working with. It’s the isolation from new ideas.
If you are not exposing yourself to new things, you will be looping through your habits and rituals day after day because it’s comfortable. You will heavily delay the knowledge on why that’s bad and continue to loop. Even worse would be to come to this awareness by luck - and faaar too early, as you’d have no knowledge on what to do about it.
That’s depression. It’s terrible. No way for anyone to live. You’re left blind feeling the walls until you find your way, and unfortunately that’s an option with a perceived easier alternative… What do you even do…? Continue to wait for the universe to maybe drop an answer on your lap?
Yes. Not ideal and we can make alternatives collectively, but until then… yes.
How many other factors are working against Richie’s resolution? Was their parents inadequately developed emotionally? In that case, did they misinterpret reality and then push their beliefs onto Richie? Does Richie have peers they can trust? Confidants to consult? Do they even know how to read? how to research? How to even utilize and learn from said research as to avoid the bias they may have picked up from their peers?
To reiterate, people get stuck in the logic of our society and money, but it’s not a money issue as a poor individual will suffer the same situation in a different package - it’s a perceived resource issue. Exploring the semantics of why that is would probably be a great starting point to actually understanding the issue, but I don’t think I can do any of these ideas the justice they deserve. I implore you to continue exploring the idea. It’s great to empower yourself and maybe help others along the way. :)
As an alternative answer I’ll iterate from my own personal experience - the worry of money can go away. Your world is limited only by your imagination. I think some big-shot nerd said that once.
Also I wanted to add, I have friends and many acquaintances who are million/multi-millionaires whom I’ve observed over the course of my life. The culture on that level is discomforting. Poorly-educated homes compared to educational access, excessive partying (drugs or purely social), and a really weird desire to save money? Like a good amount of who I’ve been exposed to, they LOVE shopping at thrift stores and getting deals, which ironically ties-back to the article here.
Weird!