Why are billionaires good or are they not?

The rich are my heroes. They are the ones I most want to be like. I do everything I can to get as rich as I possibly can, though I seriously doubt I'll ever hit billionaire status.

[Edit] And if I did become filthy rich I would give most of it away...to family, friends, charitable causes and the such...but not a penny to lazy assed poor people or the government.

 

If any of you manage to become billionaires and give most of your shit away. Watch and weep as many of your recipients blow it all away on expensively frivolous and materialistic nonsense, and go broke all over again.

Don't look at me. It happens to most lottery winners anyway. Bad investments and horrible lifestyle choices are a huge contributor to poverty.

21 lottery winners who blew it all

 

Everyone thinks you would blow it all on coke and hookers. Private yacht in the caribbean to carry around said coke and hookers

 

You must be a lot of fun at parties.

 

Snark attack!!

 

Definitely not coke...benzos maybe.

 

Benzos?

Fine, a yacht in the caribbean with bunch of middle aged housewives and their therapists then

 

Meh, most of the posts in this thread reek of entitlement complexes, or wealth guilt.

 

Eh
You’re not wrong.

 

I was just messing with you. . I would totally hang with you at a party.

But do you really think that bad investments are a huge contributer to poverty? I think you need to have a secure amount of wealth (at least lower middle class) to even think about investing.

I have heard about how winning the lottery can be a financial kiss of death--and I assume this is usually the case with poor folk who don't have much knowledge about how wealth works, or how to save/build/maintain wealth. To give large amounts of money to someone who has no idea how to use it is like gifting someone a powerful, potentially dangerous tool that they don't know how to use.

It is interesting how polarizing the topic of large amounts of money is. We either idolize the mega-rich, or disdain them. Anecdotally, I have spent time with many millionaires and even dozens of billionaires, and there is nothing magical about them.

Some of them have an air of entitlement and detachment about them, some don't. Many of them aren't particularly happy people, and there are very few of them that I envy. They have their own problems which, to them, feel just as real as your problems do to you.

 

I thought there was a nuance being made between rich people who do give a certain percentage away/invest in their fellow people and those who don't. Of course a second nuance could be placed as to the exact goals of this money and the exact motives (if its just tax evasion for instance)..

 

Just let me agree with 6 and not ruin it.

 

You know, if you're part of a nation, that's supposed to mean something. If you have more money than you could ever spend, even with 70% taxes, you'd think you'd be willing to pay to make your fellow countrymen happier or live a little better. I would say that's just being a good citizen. They should be itching at the chance to make this country great, but far from it.

And Americans are just, like, "They're entitled to the money that they earned." But there's SUPPOSED to be something bigger here at play. Unfortunately, in America, it's every man for himself. It's a mystery why our society is falling apart at the seams.

 

High-5

 

To clarify what I mean by investing, I imply the buying and time habits of individuals.

And yes, I think horrible spending habits and lifestyle choices are huge contributors to poverty. Are they the only things that cause poverty? No, not necessarily.

I've known and worked with lots of poor people in the USA. Many of them had addictions that they kept needing to spend their money on. Such addictions that cause impaired judgment, and lead them down a hole of terrible lifestyle choices. In my late teens & early 20s, I apprenticed for a guy who gave his impoverished fiance $33,000 to help pay off debts and get herself and her kids back on her feet. She took that money and bought brand new furniture and upgraded her car. Leaving her financial problems unsolved. I befriended a guy I met at a party who was homeless. I brought him into my studio apartment and gave him a place to stay when he had no other options. I wanted to help him out, so I gave him some of my nice clothes that he could use for a job interview. But he never made any effort to improve himself because he was content living on state assistance; I once came back to my apartment to find him smoking heroin off a spoon. He became a problem so I eventually cut all ties with him. Back when I worked security for an urban community college, I constantly had to tell transients and welfare queens that they could not loiter or sleep outside of doorways, or inside the buildings. Some would scram, but others would try and argue with me as if they were entitled to do whatever the hell they want. They'd often try and freeload cigarettes off of students who went outside for a smoke. At times I had to stop them from harassing small female students who'd refuse to offer them a cigarette. I'll never forget the drifter I wrote up who screamed, "Dumb bitch! Whats wrong with you? I wanna smoke!" So yeah, in my experience, a lot of poor people have entitlement complexes, bad habits, and they usually are not good at personal finance.

Yet I also agree with you that rich people aren't always worth idolizing. Many of them have their own problems that I wouldn't want any part of having. Every once in a while, a rich celebrity commits suicide. I've learned from experience that materialism doesn't make me happy at all, but rather it's the people who love me and the life experiences I share with them.

 

I wish we could elect where our taxes go. Wealthy or not wealthy, it would be nice to know that my money is going to something I believe in.

 

Why do you think poor people have poor spending habits though? Why do you think they make poor life-style choices? Is it genetic, is it learned behavior, what? And what can we do about it? Some countries don't have poverty like we do--what does that mean to you, and what sort of lessons can we learn from them?

I grew up on and off of welfare and food stamps, but my family worked hard. It's really difficult to support a family on a single parent income in America, especially if you came from poverty yourself (it really is a difficult cycle to break). You are constantly one unexpected bill away from financial ruin, even if you pinch pennies and don't have any bad habits or addictions. We never went out to eat, didn't have nice things, rarely got any "luxuries", and still weren't able to claw our way out of poverty.

It's crazy how we expect the poor to bust their asses at work and also live a meager and joyless existence. Middle class folks are the first to point fingers at poor people who seem to be having too much fun--how dare they buy a coffee from Starbucks, go out to eat, go to the movies. God forbid they didn't save that money; it's sad.

 

^yeah. Grew up poor on a single income too. My mom made sure I never felt poor, and as a result she never saved money. But when your option is to create a meager savings or give your children a decent life, most people would choose the latter.

 

It’s because they’re inferior and deserve only our pity and disdain.

 

What are you getting trying to say here?