Rich people are greedy. The richest and greediest people on the planet
Usually rich people are considered greedy, while in reality poor people are much more greedy. A rich person is not greedy, he is prudent and economical, in most cases, while a poor person is wasteful and imprudent in his spending; poor people, as a rule, spend more than they earn, often ending up in debt. According to my observations, I have often noticed the difference between the rich and the poor, and I can tell you with confidence that among the poor people there are much more greedy, monstrously greedy people. The reason for this is primarily the social suppression of such people; they feel inferior, deprived, inferior beings compared to others. As a rule, rich people cause them hatred and irritation, and strong envy. Therefore, as soon as such a person has the opportunity to get a little more, he considers this a chance for himself and tries to grab everything he can.
This behavior of a person has always been played and played on in order to use it in one’s own interests. The bait method works ideally for such people; without the material wealth that others have, the poor person is ready to do anything to get them. And it is completely useless to explain to him that much of what he does not have is completely unnecessary to him. A poor person always thinks that he needs something because he doesn't have it. No one has yet succeeded in creating an equal society; in my opinion, this is a utopia, at least until a person’s upbringing takes place in more equal conditions. There are not yet the necessary prerequisites for people to have an equally balanced psyche, and without it there will always be morally depressed people. Materialism has become for them the only goal in life that they strive for, and this materialism is nothing more than an idea.
Such an idea can be anything, for example, belief in God, or the idea of building a special society with equal rights. Materialism prevails in our world only because it goes next to need, and although most needs are imposed on people, money and material goods are closest to them than anything else. Although the point, as I already said, is not about money, it’s only about people who either accept you or not, and if society has a negative attitude towards poor people, oppressing them in every possible way, then the poor person has a desire to be the same as everyone else and even better will manifest itself in greed.
In fact, to satisfy all his needs, a person does not need so much, but only those who have this amount necessary for life know about this. Or rather, they don’t know, but they understand it; everyone else who doesn’t have it doesn’t even realize that it will always be enough for them, no matter how much they receive. If a person was hungry as a child, then with a high degree of probability he will suffer from obesity, or be too sensitive to food. If a person did not have clothes in childhood, and he was forced to wear old and shabby clothes for someone else, then he is more likely to become obsessed with buying clothes for himself.
All this is so banal that it has become an iron rule, but not for those who suffer from it. Although there are exceptions, I am familiar with them. Here you just need to pull out all your fears from the subconscious and transfer them to the conscious level. Then the person will understand that what was already gone, and before him is a completely different life, in which there is no need to stock up on everything that he did not have before. You can’t wear two pants, you can’t eat five lunches, you can’t drive three cars at once, so why is all this necessary? Greed, which originates precisely from the fear of losing everything and from the fear of not being able to do something. It’s only with such fear and the behavior that corresponds to it that a person loses the most important thing, his life.
Chasing something all your life, to the death, is not life, and if you happen to be born into a poor family, then use this as an incentive to strive to live with dignity, but do not be greedy for little things. Greed has never helped; it always keeps pace with stupidity and madness, poisoning life and sometimes ruining it.
Those who believe in the verisimilitude of film images have long had ideas about what rich people, billionaires, or at least multimillionaires look and behave like. Everyone knows that they drive Maybachs and Ferraris, casually glancing at their gold Pathé Philippe watches, live in huge palaces, and eat exclusively delicacies, a gram of which costs the monthly salary of an American programmer.
There is another opinion, polar opposite, and it is that all rich people are rare misers, saving on soap and cigarette butts. The most interesting thing is that both of these ideas are based on real examples. The world is multifaceted, and it all depends on which side you look at it from. The article is dedicated to the thrifty rich.
Thrift or greed?
Very often (though not always) people for whom the purpose of life is to make money become truly rich. This object of passion becomes a fetish, it is worshiped and elevated to the rank of absolute value. In this case, greed is a natural consequence of the main goal, and even sacrifices are made to it. Such rich people save their money and try not to spend it.
In other cases, we are talking about economy or lack of wastefulness. A person, having become rich, does not become a slave to the “golden calf”; he is not interested in the opinions of others about his lifestyle, and he does not want to impress anyone. For such a person, money gives freedom and opportunities for self-realization at a higher level. However, unfortunately, people often confuse these two types of wealthy people. Below are examples of both life approaches, and let the reader decide for himself which of them belongs to which category.
"The Witch of Wall Street"
Henrietta Howland Green nee Robinson (1834-1916) is still considered the world's greatest miser. She rightfully deserved this title. Her parents were rich people, they owned a whaling fleet, but her uncle allegedly influenced the upbringing of the future owner of entire New York neighborhoods, who invested millions of dollars in profitable projects. From the age of six, Henrietta was fond of reading economic textbooks, and at 13 she was already working as an accountant. After her father's death, she inherited $7.5 million, a colossal amount at that time, but continued to make efforts to increase her capital. The husband of this undoubtedly outstanding woman was multimillionaire from Vermont Edward Henry Green.
For all her wealth, the millionaire was pathologically thrifty. The “Witch of Wall Street” (another nickname) skimped on washing her only dress, did not use heating or hot water, ate fifteen-cent pies and bought crumbled biscuits in order to pay less. However, all this can be considered harmless eccentricities compared to the attitude towards one’s own son, who once broke his leg. The search for a free hospital continued for too long, and when they finally succeeded, the doctors were powerless - the limb had to be removed. Mrs. Green also died either funny or sinful, upset about the overly expensive milk bought by the servants. But she was a brilliant financier...
The world's richest Mr. Getty
The name of oil tycoon John Paul Getty (1892-1976) is famous not only because he was for a long time (until his death) the richest man in the world, but also because of the story surrounding the kidnapping of his grandson in 1973. Coming from an oil-industry family of Irish descent, he graduated from Oxford and continued the family business. Getty earned his first million at the age of 24. Then there were Saudi concessions and many other profitable transactions. The multibillionaire's thriftiness was legendary. Even in his villa, telephones were equipped with coin acceptors.
The story with his grandson became the apogee of his entire biography - when the boy was kidnapped, Getty did not even negotiate, but agreed to them only after receiving a fragment of the heir’s ear. The auction ended with a six-fold reduction in the ransom amount.
The grandson, Paul Getty III, received severe psychological trauma, which affected his entire life and brought him to an early grave.
Happy owner of Niva
When some comedian on duty once again scolds the products of the domestic automobile industry with the last words, it does no harm to remember that the favorite car of the owner of the Swedish concern Tetra Pak (the largest manufacturer of packaging materials and food equipment), billionaire and holder of many honorary titles, Hans Rausing, - our Niva.
And not some kind of custom-made one, but an ordinary serial one, moreover, not purchased new. At the same time, nothing is known about any other “symptoms” of excessive frugality of the seven-time billionaire. However, one Niva is enough for our car enthusiasts to classify Rausing as a miser. Well, what if he just likes this car? And in general everything is Russian...
IKEA owner
The creator and owner of the IKEA retail chain has the same reputation. Ingvar Kamprad is also considered eccentric and tight-fisted, although he simply follows the general philosophy of the business he founded, promoting modesty and rational spending of earned money.
Yes, he drives an old Volvo, and more often on a tram, and does not eat in expensive restaurants, sits in a thirty-year-old chair (it does not fall apart and serves correctly), insists on the economical use of stationery and punishes his employees for the desire for luxury, but these are not signs of stinginess. It’s just that someone who loves the “beautiful life” will never be able to successfully sell products with the IKEA brand. Let him go to work at Tiffany or De Beers - they need them there.
Lean director
The talented British director and film critic, author of the films “Night Aliens”, “Death Wish”, “Bullseye!”, “Dirty Weekend” and many other masterpieces, was reproached for excessive thriftiness, expressed in the reuse of postal envelopes and picking out the remains of toothpaste from tubes . Michael Winner (1935-2013) earned $72 million during his career, but that's not the point. He made great films. As for oddities, the named behavioral features are more likely to fall into the category of eccentricities than vices. Let someone do something like that, and then laugh. If he wants.
A tea drinker worth 800 million
Successful British real estate dealer Nicholas von Hoogstraten was prosecuted in 2001 for organizing the contract killing of Pakistani businessman Mohammed Sabir Raja. As the investigation seemed to find out, he hired two killers, but a year later, thanks to the efforts of lawyers, it turned out that the evidence did not so clearly indicate his guilt.
Von Hoogstraten was acquitted and released from custody, but all these criminal details were already forgotten. But citizens of the United Kingdom and many foreigners still remember about tea bags, already brewed once, and then dried for re-infusion. This detail of the multimillionaire’s life emerged by chance during the investigation, and newspapers wrote about it. Von Hoogstraten never explained to anyone why he was saving on tea leaves. This is his personal business.
Owner of an old house
Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim Helu began his career by saving on everything. His family ate traditional chili and beans, drank instant coffee from the cheapest brands, and all the money they earned was put into circulation. Now that Elu owns retail chains, insurance companies, construction, printing, mining and metallurgical firms, as well as chemical industry enterprises, cement factories and many other things worth a total of $59 billion, then, according to many “connoisseurs of luxury life”, he I would simply have to live like a real rich man. But he remained a simple man and spends his money not on luxury, but on medicine, culture and education in his native Mexico. In Mexico City, he created a museum in honor of his wife, and 66 thousand of its exhibits were purchased by Carlos Helu at his own expense. Would anyone dare call him greedy? And Elu’s car, by the way, is also old, and the house is kind of too modest.
Everyone knows that there is a clear double standard between rich and poor. About the same as for women and men. The rich are thought to have quirks, wickedness, and immoral lifestyles. The poor are portrayed as honest fellows who enjoy earning their living by honest work. Moreover, we somehow forget that sometimes the rich show themselves from a very advantageous side, but the poor, on the contrary, do SUCH things that make the rich’s hair stand out. Perhaps this morality appeared so that people would not worry about their financial condition, but would limit themselves to abstract concepts of “spirituality.” There are quite a few such moral fallacies. Here are some of them.
1. The rich are evil, greedy bastards
Many classic novels and the movie Titanic have us believe that rich people are selfish, evil, greedy individuals. Even the Bible assures us that it is difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.
If you need more counter-evidence, go to Google for stories like “charity fund employee jailed for embezzlement of property.” Absolutely money does not corrupt. Of course, we hear many stories about politicians who receive large bribes and then serve meager terms in prison. Of course, they have the opportunity to pay off. Because they are rich. Then they do some nasty things again. And all because... they can.
If someone in the world made all the money in the world disappear at once, people would quickly find a new way of high-quality exchange. For example, boobs. People with a wormhole will strive for these resources and power, in fact, that’s why there are a lot of them there: there are a lot of opportunities there. By the way, think about corruption in other places where there is no great wealth. For example, at school, at universities, in small offices. Money doesn't make people like this, it's just who they are! In many countries, in ours, for example, the desire for wealth is regarded as a desire for something bad. They will definitely tell you that money is not the main thing. But you cannot strive for money, you, for example, can strive for the realization of opportunities. But no one cares again anyway.
2. Demanding debt repayment is low
Just imagine that you are in debt, like silk. You have nothing to pay rent, a loan, and even nothing to buy food for. Bailiffs can come at any moment and describe your property. And they will be absolutely right, because you owe them. They gave you some kind of trust or monetary loan, and you let them down. Of course, they want their money back. I hope you won't argue that this is supposedly unfair.
So why should we feel guilty when we demand repayment of debts from our friends or relatives? After all, we also gave them money, we gave them credit, but they haven’t been able to return it for a year. And we’re even kind of embarrassed to talk about it. They may think that money is important to us, and this is not good. You can demand a bank - that’s what a bank is! But to demand three thousand from your friend is somehow low. In addition, these people may be indignant and say: “Did bro squeeze his bro’s money?” And they will also look at you so condemningly. And somehow you don’t want to lose your comrade. Although comrades don’t act like that.
3. Asking for help is bad
A friend of mine had a mother-in-law who constantly brought some kind of nonsense to his house. Either a hundred eggs, then a couple of eggplants, then a little meat. But when they asked her for help, she literally went crazy. And the situation is clear. When you do a lot for someone, you want something in return. But here's what you definitely don't want: you don't want to be asked for anything ELSE. You immediately feel insignificant. She would do anything for you, she brings so much, and I... I asked her for help, of course, she could refuse me! Woe, woe is me! You feel like an irresponsible person who needs outside intervention.
The problem is that our main weakness is pride. Pride makes us not accept handouts from people, so as not to owe them and to feel independent. But pride can lead to the most unpleasant thing: death. You literally lose all your money, your job, your girlfriend, but you can’t accept a couple of extra thousand from your mom. You are forced to sit on the doshirak and without the Internet. You may very well die, but you don't want to accept help. But then you can always repay your debt!
4. “No” to asking for help makes you an asshole.
If one of our family members lacks money, we can, of course, give them money. This is fine. But not when we have no money. If we have a thousand rubles in our pocket, our brother comes to us, and we give him this money, because “he needs it,” we are acting stupid. Because tomorrow we will have to eat horseradish and salt. If you have your family, which at the moment does not have enough money, and one of your relatives asks you for a loan with this look: “You still have more money than me,” you should not lend to them, because you are putting your family at risk.
The worst thing is that some members of your family, when you reach a more or less influential position, will come and literally demand that you give their children a place in your company. You can give a place to practice, but a workplace for which you will pay money into the pocket of a slacker is somehow unreasonable. But for some reason we still do this. Paradox, right?
We think that Bill Gates has turned people down more than once. However, the mentality there is a little different, and don’t forget that he donated a lot of money to charity.
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