I just heard on the radio this morning that the star of the TV sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” makes $800,000 … per episode. All that money for reading a script and posing in front of a bunch’a cameras?
Puts everything in perspective, if you ask me.
You do not say which religious organization your friend belongs to, and I know that some preach poverty. But, if you read the Bible, God promises over and over riches to the faithful. God actually wants us to be prosperous and gasp rich. What He doesn’t want is for us to be corrupted by our riches or lose sight of Him because of them or worse to count on those riches rather than Him. I don’t see a good paying job as being wrong. You obviously have worked hard to obtain it. I say your friend is worshiping the glory of poverty, which is also an extreme that prevents us from a good relationship with God. But I don’t want to judge (you ever notice when someone says that they just did, sorry 
)
I want to make a billion zillion whillion jillion dollars, and then roll around in big piles of it. So there.
deb2world wrote:
Except for that whole camel-passing-through-the-eye-of-a-needle thing.
I take care of an elderly lady who has survived for 90 years on a meager diet. Breakfast: one egg, dry toast, warm water. Lunch: baked potato, tomato, milk. (On Fridays, also 1/4 can of tuna, which she hates.) Supper: oatmeal, banana, water.
No salt, seasonings, condiments, sugar, butter, anything. She eats just enough to keep her body going. She tried chocolate once (in a moment of weakness, I presume) and loved it, but won’t eat it.
In her belief system, enjoying food is gluttony. Chocolate and all other treats are “frivolous”.
Skwerl, does your friend save for his retirement? In my belief system, failing to save for retirement and then expecting others to support you with their tax dollars and volunteer efforts is terribly greedy. (I’m talking here about people who are capable of saving but don’t do it, not people who can’t save or lose their money through misfortune.)
Does your friend have running water, electricity, or more than one pair of shoes? If so, he is a hypocrite.
Each one of us has a slightly different idea of an acceptable and desireable standard of living. Money is not evil; it’s a tool that we use to attain that standard of living we desire. Spending money benefits others. Hoarding money eventually benefits others because misers have to die someday, too, and their riches will be redistributed.
If your friend makes himself happy by wallowing in self-induced deprivation, all power to him. If he wants to make himself happy by making you feel miserable or guilty, tell him to kiss your butt. Please pass the chocolate.
Your friend is forgetting one thing, it is precisely because people strive to make the $80K/yr that our economy is so fabulously productive. When a person makes a salary, it is because they produce goods and services, either directly or indirectly. The size of a salary is more or less proportional to the amount of G&S produced. You will get paid $80K/yr because you will create $80K/yr.
If everyone felt the way your friend did, we’d be like Bhutan, subsistence farmers with hardly any modern technology whatsoever.
You should worry about doing what makes you happy, not what makes him happy. I do find that some people seem to sacrifice their lives for the almighty dollar, working frightful hours just so they can have a few more luxuries. We all must choose our own path, and make the decisions that please us.
Sit next to the pool in your nice house drinking a cocktail and say ‘ooo i feel so guilty’