I went to a friend of a friend’s house for the first time over the holidays, and frankly, the material excesses I saw there made me sick, sick, sick! NOBODY should have that much wealth while others have so little.
The house was a rambling U-Shaped monstrosity. Off the enormous living room was a huge black bottom pool and spa that could supply the irrigation needs of my father’s farm in West Milton, Ohio. Inside he had a salt water aquarium big enough to scuba dive in. Decandence was everywhere: Baby Grand piano in the living room that would evoke the envy of any buffo I ever met; a fully appointed kitchen which could feed an army division at one sitting; antique slot machines and expensive memorabilia and other oppulent furnishings adorn virtually every square foot of the place, or should I say PALACE; the master bedroom, the size of a basketball court, has a bed big enough get lost in and another spa, yes another spa! Finally, the place has a “media room” with more electronic equipment than a lunar orbiter.
When is enough, enough?
COME ON …DO PEOPLE REALLY NEED ALL THIS STUFF? CAN’T THE WEALTHY AND THEIR ILK SPEND LESS ON THEMSELVES AND SHARE MORE OF THEIR GOOD FORTUNE WITH THE LESS FORTUNATE… AND FEEL JUST AS RICH!
COME ON RICH PEOPLE, PUT YOUR PRIORITIES IN PLACE!
Yup, my family paid all their bills, and bought food with the profits they made selling them all that crap/ installing the pool/ cleaning the aquarium…
If people like that didnt buy stuff, people wouldnt work.
When folks spend money, everyone profits. When folks hoard money, everyone suffers…simple economics.
NOBODY should have that much wealth while others have so little.
Ridiculous. They must have worked very hard to get it, they earned it, it’s theirs to do with as they see fit.
This is capitalist society. You get what you work for. Is it unfair that a neurosurgeon who spent close to 10 years studying hard in med school earns more than a janitor who dropped out of high school at age 16?
tergivesater1: Maybe those people have more than others because they are more intelligent than others. If you don’t like it then get a better job, start a revolution of the proletariat, join Robin Hood and his merry men… do whatever, just don’t whine about it.
Gluttony is defined as “excess in eating or drinking” doubt me? Check out your dictionary.
Aside from the actual meaning and to your post.
I resent the fact that you think wealthy people should not have a pool, collectibles of great value etc. It shows that you possibly live in the world of sloth thereby meaning you have a “disinclination to action or labor” (again check out your dictionary.)
My father is a very wealthy man. Yes, he has the $53,000 Jaguar, has the 350 gallon aquarium, has the 9,000 square foot house (which he designed), takes trips to lands that some of us would only dream of visiting, but that gives you no right to say he must share his wealth. He has worked harder in his life than most would be able to do in three lifetimes. He is retired now but still has his investments and his other businesses to further jobs and keep him from being bored. Before he retired, he created jobs for many people, he created the means by which homeowners could view the mountain vistas (manufacturing of windows and doors) and contributed greatly in the political realm of our city.
ALSO, he and my step-mom realize the value and thank their God every day for their financial status in our town. They give more money to the less fortunate in a year than you make in a year.
SO, before you poopoo the wealthy and slam them all in some category (prejudice comes to mind) you should rethink your words.
My father worked is ass off for what he has. I have seen him in more stress than you could fathom because of the reliance that others had on him (by providing these people with an honest living) to keep his businesses up and running.
If there is any group of people you should be concerned about is those “sloths” that live off our taxes and refuse to make their lives productive and benefical to the rest of the community.
Actually, one boring summer I wanted to get my friends together to break into people’s houses and redecorate their houses really badly. The whole Robin Hood good-vs-evil thing is cliche. I wanted to do something completely irrelevant and stupid. Go in there and hang up some avacado-green drapes… rearrange the furniture, put down some ugly tablecloths. Yeah, confuse the hell out of everyone.
BTW Tergie, you’re an attorney according to your profile…wouldn’t that make you the scum of the scum, the sloth of all sloths, the wasted amongst the wasted? An ambulance chaser and the most retched people of the earth?
Hey, at 200 buck an hour (or so some are charging) you could be living in that wealth too you know.
Before you bite those that are wealthy by your words, you could be rolling in the dough by suing those wealthy people for having excess. And you can do that with no means by which to work, all you have to do is get up in front of a judge, find a “sad victim” of the wealthy and sue…you lucky dog you, I am in the wrong business.
He’s right about the basic unfairness of all this conspicuous consumption though – I’ve even heard that there’s folks in Santa Barbara who can’t afford a computer. Imagine.
Charity begins at home there tergives – care to make a donation?
Dr. Watson
“Rich, adj.: Holding in trust and subject to an accounting the property of the indolent, the incompetent, the unthrifty, the envious, and the luckless.” – Ambrose Bierce
Okay, Teacherchick68, technically you’re right, Gluttony does pertain to “excessive eating”. You win, grade me down Frau Professor… and excuse me for using a friggin METHAPHOR!
To the rest of you appologists for the excessive materialists of the world…you got it wrong! This country’s pioneer spirit, the spirit which made us a great nation, was based upon sharing what people had, not hoarding. It was based upon looking out for the other fella, lending a helping hand, thinking first about the needs of the other guy…not me, me, me, so clearly evidenced by the hoarders in our midst.
We’ve gotten away from that spirit these days, thats all I’m saying. Instead of loading up on material crap, as a way of feeling rich, people today need to learn to feel rich by using their excess resources to help those in genuine need… like hungry and traumatized children in the Balkans or Africa, or American kids born crack addicted in the inner cities, or the impoverished aged and infirmed. You know who I talking about, these “sloths” as Ms. Teacherchick68 so cavilerly describes them.
We need more George Baileys and fewer Henry Potters in the world today. That’s all I’m saying. Frank Capra said it all in the famous Christmas movie classic, “Its A Wonderful Life”. There, the story’s main character and hero, George Bailey, spent his whole life, sacrifing his own desires for the the good of the community and at the end of the movie, facing financial ruin, he is lovingly embraced by the entire community, save one Henry Potter, the town’s pre-eminent “gluttonist”. In the George’s Brother, Harry Bailey offers the following toast: “To my brother George Bailey, the richest man in town.”
I work for the legal aid office, a non-profit orgaization. I get paid $15.00 an hour. I volunteer my services for free to the needy. But, hey nothing wrong with sterotyping is there?
What’s the problem? You said they had a bbay grand. Could have been worse.
Seriously, I will echo the sentiments of just about every other post. They (or ancestors) earned that wealth, either through hard work, intelligence, etc. They deserve it, they can do anything they want with it. It is no one’s right to take it from them and spread it equally. Otherwise, why succeed? You could be a complete loser and end up just as well off as someone working their butt’s off.
You can feel free to call me Mr. Tied for 26th place on the favorite poster’s list.
I still dont see how a baby grand or a huge aquarium would profit a crack addicted baby.
People who buy ‘stuff’ create jobs.
People who need ‘stuff’ should get a job.
Dont even get me started on bailing out the economies of these third world countries! If all of north america gave all thier money to these 3rd worlders, do you know what we would have? There would be a continent wide recession, and the people getting all the money would buy food, eat the food, and then they STILL wouldnt have any fucking food! Then what?
you have a very simplified view of things. Giving money away does NOT equal good for all. As long as folks with $$ buy stuff with their money, then EVERYONE benefits.
