Do you hate rich people?

[alexb5784]

This post is about making intentions and visualizing yourself as being rich, but harboring the feelings that rich people are evil or mean. I know that it's common for people to see the rich as being different from themselves. I don't think your intentions can manifest, if you have conflicting beliefs.

I've spoken to a few people who make intentions to increase their incomes, but have negative attitudes towards the wealthy. They say things like "I want to be rich, but rich people are so snobby. They think they're better than me." But how can you become wealthy, if you hate rich people? It's impossible to become something you despise. It's like a fat person, saying "I hate slim people, because they have better lives than me !" Therefore, it would be near impossible for the overweight person to slim down, because they see slim people as being evil. So why would they want to be evil too? They don't, and that's why they stay fat. It's a way for them to feel good about themselves and justify their lifestyle. And that's the same reason people stay broke, to justify their lack of funds and to make themselves look more noble. But there is nothing noble about being broke!

I don't believe you can increase your income, no matter how many affirmations or intentions you make, if you see wealthy people as bad or evil. I don't care if you read 1000 books on becoming rich, attend 100 finance boot camps or even have Tony Robbins come to your house and give you a fire-walking pep-talk in your front lawn...you won't ever be wealthy until you see it as something that can be positive.

When I think of people who have more money than me, I say to myself "These folks are great because they're giving so much value. They provide jobs, housing and services to others. I like that. They deserve to make as much as they want. Rich people are generous."

Now of course, I do count their attitudes towards me and what they do for a living. I wouldn't look up to someone who make millions growing tabacco, but I would look up to someone who makes millions providing services that add to the quality of life. And even if someone wasn't a millionaire, I would still admire them if they make life better for others (social workers, teachers, etc)

What are your comments about this? Do you want to be rich, but hate rich people? And if you hate them, why?

Also, I think it's important to know, that there are way more snobby people who are broke and poor out there, than rich. Why? Because fewer people in the population are wealthy. And I believe that it's not the money, but rather the person. If you're kind, you're kind, no matter how much money you have. And if you're mean, you're mean, no matter how broke or wealthy you are!

I like rich people. And I'm looking forward to continuing to increase my income in 2007, because I provide value to others. And if I want to make more $$$ I can. And if you want to make more, then you can too

[Sadhana]

Originally Posted by alexb5784

What are your comments about this? Do you want to be rich, but hate rich people? And if you hate them, why?

I don't hate them --- never have, never will. It's something I never understood, either. It's rather like saying dogs are evil because one of them bit you...

[John Wesley]

I think its a love-hate thing. There is certainly a lot of envy that leads to hate and also a bit of worship. We all want to be reach people, so we want to hang out with rich people and gain an advantage from them.

Overall though, I like to think that after I know a person I can get past the amount of money they have.

[PMcDonald]

You hit the nail on the head Alex. You absolutely cannot get rich if you believe that rich people are evil or greedy. Your feelings conflict with your desires, there is no sychronicity and therefore no manfestation of wealth occurs. It is fair to say as well that those people who harbor negative feelings towards the wealthy and rich will in fact, by the LoA, get more poverty because they believe there is some sort of higher integrity with being poor.

You're doing the right thing by celebrating wealthy people. We are meant to live wealthy and prosperous lives, not to wallow in mediocrity or poverty.

I would suggest that you also not only look to embrace the wealthy, but surround yourself with wealthy people and people who are highly successful. After all, it is said that you become the sum of the people who you surround yourself with and therefore have the greatest influence on your life.

[Mr. Punch]

This is a very valid point, Alex, and perhaps even more so for an European like myself. To take an example; I just read the book The Science of Getting Rich on a recommendation from a fellow member in here. It was a good read - and some of it was quite provocative. Take this statement; "It is the desire of God that you should get rich. He wants you to get rich because he can express himself better through you if you have plenty of things to use in giving him expression". (p 16.)

It really stirred up some resistance and I reflected on that. Envy has been mentioned as one source of dislike toward the wealthy but social conditioning is another. I grew up and live in Denmark which is one of the premier welfare states in the world. And much suffering has been eliminated because of this system. But it is also founded on the paradigm of equality and people who actually make it here, financially, are in subtle ways...suspicious.

Now surely, it can't be God's/the welfare states' meaning with me that I should become MORE than my fellow man? Then LOA will definitely NOT work!

[KeithHandy]

Interesting points, but as for the comparision to fat/thin people, there's an important difference: to "make" a dollar, it has to come from another person. To lose a pound, another person doesn't have to gain it.

[Dani]

Keith,

A very negative outlook on that. You make it sound like anytime you recieve money you are actually depriving someone of something. taking it from them without providing anything.

A 'dollar' is simply an expression of value. Currency was brought into existence to make trading goods easier and you then trade what you wanted to who you wanted instead of having to find someone with what you wanted and who wanted what you had.

e.g. before if I made chairs and I wanted food, I would have to find someone with food who wanted a chair.

In this scenario I am trading the value of my chair for the same value of food.

Now I find anyone who wants a chair, get their money, and then go find someone with food to sell and give them the money I earned with my chair.

This is the same transaction, the value of the chair in food, only it is made easier to accomplish by money existing.

In neither case was anything taken without equal value being returned. I recieved money for my chair, the person gave me their money and recieved the chair.

Every -honest- wealthy person recieves their money by providing value to others. How much value has Bill Gates given the world with windows? As much as people whine about him and MS, can you imagine a world still using 086 IBM pcs and DOS? We wouldn't be here on this forum right now if it wasn't for rich people.

What about our oil Barons everyone hates so much. Next time you get into your car, train, taxi, or buy food from the supermarket that was imported on ships, transported by trucks or trains or type on your refined petrol keyboard while looking at your refined petrol computer monitor. Ask yourself how much value they have actually brought to your life.

Yes there are dishonest people who lie about the value you are getting when you spend your cash. But they are most certainly not exclusively rich. I think you will find the overwhelming majority of criminals for example are actually poor people who want -something for nothing-.

As long as a nation is creating real value they will continue to create, and circulate money without inflation. Inflation sets in when a country prints more money than it is actually producing value to back up.

You are also assuming that when I recieve x dollars form x person that I sit on them and do nothing thus taking it out of the system and giving it to me not another person. But that money will actually be very quickly handed on by that rich person to someone else.

They may buy a new car, giving jobs to hundreds of people. Or a house, or food, or clothes etc etc. The dollar they 'took' from someone else will soon get given to a third person for the value they are offering.

The porer you are, the less you spend, the less you give to your fellow man. You are more selfish (for want of a better word) when you are poor because you give less to other people.

Money is only scarce for those people who are not providing value. If you want more money, it's very simple. Provide more value than you are currently getting paid for.

Most people do the bare minimum at work and expect a pay rise. How can you call yourself honest and then turn around and expect more value to be given to you than you are giving out???

If you want the pay rise you need to be giving more value than they are paying you for. This single idea has netted me a minimum 15% pay raise every year up to more than 50% some years.

After ten years in IT when comparing the salaries of my University classmates to my own I was earning literally 5-8 times their salaries. I wasn't any smarter than them, in fact many of them are better programmers than me. The difference is that I am constantly looking for ways to add value to my company over an above what they are paying me to do.

Even here in Japan where you -don't- get pay raises except tiny incremental ones, I will be getting at least 15% this year because I am adding so much extra value to my company.

Very simply, it is more expensive for me to leave, than to give me my pay rise. Value is the key to wealth. If you are not providing value to your fellow man, you cant hope to get rich.

If you provide value, then money is effectively limitless. Because value is limitless and can be infinitely produced, and money is simply a reflection of value.

To someones comment earlier about the rich being snobs.

There two sides to this. First the fake rich, the people who are up to their eyeballs in debt trying to look they are rich. These people are so afraid of being poor that they will often try to lord it over poor people to make themselves feel like they aren't. These snobs however are still poor people.

The truly wealthy, simply cannot spend much time with poor people unless they want to become poor again. Their outlooks on life are completely different. The poor want to be pessimistic and complain about how hard life is. The wealthy want to be optomisitic and talk about new ideas and goals.

Hanging out with poor people is emotionally draining for a wealthy person. I am not even significantly wealthy and I find it draining hanging out with poor minded people because the negativity is just so strong around them.

Hanging out with wealthy people is intimidating for poor. The wealthy don't agree with them that they are hard done by and that there is no chance for a little guy in the world. etc. They will have to answer questions like - Why don't you...? Have you tried....? To which the answer always seems to be 'I can't, I can't I F^%$N CANT'

I use this last example because my highschool friends I would firmly place in the 'poor' class. They all work dead end jobs, have low incomes and bitch adn wine constantly about how hard life is. Whenever I offer to help them lay out a plan to show them how to improve their lives they respond with very agressive 'I can't's until I give up.

I can't hang out with them anymore either because I feel depressed whenever I am with them because I want to talk abotu what I can do, not what I can't do.

So wealthy MUST seperate themselves from the chronically poor unless they want to become poor. The poor blame the rich, but really they don't want a rich person hanging out with them either. Because they get intimidated and angry that they wont pander to their self pity.

[Acting Like Godot]

A digression, but here's a little story.

Recently I was walking around with a friend, in town. As we started to turn into a certain small street, we passed a grubby old man, sitting on the ground, who looked like a beggar. He looked half-asleep.

My friend said, "See that man? Don't look now, I'll tell you something about him in a moment."

We turned into the street. On both sides of the street, there were little shops, some were selling tourist souvenirs; there were a few small eateries; a watch shop; a small pharmacy; a tailor etc. It was quite a lively street.

My friend said: "Did you know that the old man owns all these shops? He's the landlord. The shop tenants - they all pay rent to him."

There were at least 20 shops on that street.

Rich people come in a wide variety of different forms. Don't ever bother with generalisations like "Rich people are evil". Some of them may be, but then some poor people are evil too. So the generalisation is meaningless. Ernest Hemingway once wrote something like this:

"The rich are different from you and I. They have more money."

And that is really all you can say.

[munish]

poor people want to be rich ,
rich people are committed to be rich.
-Pohaku.

[KeithHandy]

Originally Posted by Dani

Keith,

A very negative outlook on that. You make it sound like anytime you recieve money you are actually depriving someone of something. taking it from them without providing anything.

I pretty much agree with what you posted in response to my post. The statement I made was not an expression of my outlook (though I'm sure I harbor a lot of it unconsciously and need to work through that somehow) so much as pointing out a flaw in an analogy. The fat/thin thing doesn't have this complication about it, although I wonder if there are people who actually feel like it does ... like they would get mad at someone who lost weight because it made them feel fatter.

I guess my question is, since so many people do feel both guilty when they receive money and angry when they pass it along, it makes it hard psychologically to directly collect payment from people for any kind of service I would provide independently. It feels awkward for me. It seems like the people who could stand to benefit most from what I have to offer have always been on the poor side -- maybe this is something that needs to change?

Is this the reason businesses set up insulation between the customer and the company, so no one has to experience that awkwardness? A cashier who is just doing her job doesn't ever have to explain why a particular price was chosen for an item. She's not the one getting the money, so no one has to directly experience the transaction. Maybe because we're so used to this insulation, we're not accustomed to, say, going to a private shop and buying a handmade piece of furniture directly from the person who made it.

Money would work so well for all of society if everyone allowed it to flow, like water through the rivers or blood through the veins. But people have a very time-frozen view of it, that being if I have $500 right at this moment, it's better than if I have $50 right at this moment, regardless of how the overall flow is going. It's perceived as a static quality. They'll spend thousands of dollars on scratch-off tickets over the years, and one day they'll finally win $300 and think it's great.

The point being, the problem or the "block" doesn't just lie within the person seeking wealth -- it lies with a huge chunk of his potential customer base, and maybe the would-be entrepreneur internalizes this block.

[Liara Covert]

This posting does offer much food for thought. I personally don't choose to make or drop friends simply because of how much money they make or lose. I don't think money alone makes people evil. Sometimes systems corrupt people yet, even so, only if they permit this to happen. They have choices.

I naturally spend more time communicating with people whose values and principles I share. People I've known for years have experienced significant financial ups and downs. This has also related to imbalances and fluctuations in other areas of their lives.

I do agree that the people you choose to be around tend to be compatible with who or what you aspire to become. Mentors are like that. They spend time with you because they see part of who they once were in you and they wish for you to achieve. Ask yourself why professional athletes become coaches. Its not necessarily for money. They don't think its evil for aspiring athletes to take stpes to move up the ranks. Coaches help them to earn more money.

Successful people inspire you to achieve. Part of fulfillment for wealthy people can be helping you develop the skills and wherwithall to do the same thing. Why did Bill gates help Apple? It was in his interest that that company didn't sink. Gates still likes to know what Apple is developing, but not because he wishes to sabotage. Why is Bill Gates, the wealthiest man, admired by many people? He re-invests billions of dollars into foundations and programs to improve literacy and education around the world. He is always giving back to society. It would be rather shallow to choose friends or colleagues solely based on seeking things from them. Of course this happens, but I wouldn't generalize to say all people with wealthier friends are jealous and resentful and simply want without giving things back.

I sense the value people contribute to society is being directly related to their personal wealth creation. Wealth comes in different forms. Its said that once you discover and develop your passion inways that give back, the money will come. You will not have to chase after it.

"He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all."
-Miguel de Cervantes

[rono]

You are so right Alexa and this is exactly the message that T. Harv Eker relates in his inspiring book "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind". If your 'Money Blueprint' is set for negativity towards the rich---you can never be rich. Makes perfect sense.

[KellyMartin]

I don't hate rich people for being rich. Sometimes I get frustrated when I view rich people misusing their power.

I look to see so many wonderful inspiring, ethically minded wealthy people and then I see my landlord. I gotta do some healing work on my feeling towards my landlord. He has every right to enjoy his wealth in anyway he sees fit I just find him selfish and thoughless. He is a very wealthy man who turns the heating off in our home in the winter (we are on his land and our electric is connected to his home). He has a largish garden which we feel we are not allowed to sit in unless they are on holiday. I hurts to look out of the window and miss out on the garden time in the summer. We are moving next month, its essential. But it feels hard in my heart to see someone with such great material wealth and not use it in a loving nurturing way. If it had been my wealth I would have allotted a section of the garden to my tenants and also give them the freedom of the central heating when they want it.

So yeah, I dont know about hate, hurts. And I grow frustrated because I allowed myself to live under such circumstances and I have been looking at this a lot. My partner most of the time is able to step back and just let it pass through him, I sometimes feel a bit too sensitive to do this.

I know how I want to use my wealth as I create it, perhaps I should have compassion for this gentlemen and see his choices as a lesson in how not to use money? and power?


SELF TALKING HERE LOL!!

[Shamou]

I do believe that one of the reason that some people hate the rich is that they do not understand the zero-sum theory (see here)...

They believe that if someone acquires money... someone else must lose some... which is not the case...

This is what part of the above suggested article has to say about economics and the zero-sum theory...

Economics and non-zero-sum

Many economic situations are not zero-sum, since valuable goods and services can be created, destroyed, or badly allocated, and any of these will create a net gain or loss. Assuming the counterparties are acting rationally, any commercial exchange is a non-zero-sum activity, because each party must consider the goods s/he is receiving as being at least fractionally more valuable to him/her than the goods s/he is delivering.

.

[Tempest]

Not at all - I don't hate anyone. After deciding that being rich was one of my desires, I "by chance" met a local multi-millionaire. He was picking up an Abraham book, and was behind me in line at the bookstore and we got to chatting. I myself used to think rich people were evil and snobby, but then I got to meet about 30 of them. None of these people was worth less then 15 million, two were billionaires. And getting to MEET them, and converse with them, only two were snobby little prats. They knew I was not rich (yet), but it was like chatting up a bunch of old buddies.

That completely and totally destroyed any limitng beliefs I had about snobby rich people. Of course there were going to be one or two in the crowd - people are people, with different personalities.

[alexyeo]

Those people who hated the "rich" people can be right and wrong. It's their perspective. They may define someone who is rich as those earning more than $5000/month.

These people are NOT rich! They are merely well-to-do. In fact, they are pretending to be rich and most of them are indeed snobbish. I have met some of these "sucky" people personally.

Well, those people who are really rich are Warrent Buffets, Bill Gates, Sim Wong Foo (founder of Creative) etc. I think if you read their bibliography, most of those "super-rich" live a very frugal lifestyle and are very generous towards charity. I admire them and they are the real rich who we need to look up to. NOT those pretenders...

Agree ? Disagree? Views are welcomed...

[ken nubo]

Do I hate rich people?

ABSOLUTLY ......... NOT!

Rich people are just people with money, it's no big deal

[Scientist]

I think there is more than one kind of rich person, and some kinds of rich people I like, and others I am not fond of.

Rich people who are modest, relaxed, friendly, do not flaunt their wealth and use their money as a force for good are the kind of rich people that I like. I think some actors and entrepreneurs are like this. I would like to be one of these kinds of rich people.

Rich people who are greedy, selfish and full of themselves are not people I would get along with, nor would I want to be like that.

I think the trick is to identify with the kind of rich person you would like to be, rather than the kind of rich people you may know or have heard of.

[Rosie]

I haven't read the post. But why the hell would you hate someone just for being rich. They are not different than you or I, and are most likely very nice. To be honest hating someone because of their financial status is completely wrong, prejudice and based on jealousy.

[openeyes]

At least half of the interesting adults I know are each worth 7 to 9 figures (the others focused on family). They're the most disciplined, intense people I know. While the money they now have can be enviable, I wouldn't want to go through what they did in order to get where they are now. Only one has an intact family, and he may not have started having kids until after he'd sold off his software company. Now he teaches math and practices attachment parenting with his three kids.

I may strive for millions at some point, but for now it seems easier to attain what I want without the 80 hour weeks all the millionaires I know put in for years if not decades. Most of what I want requires at most 30 to 50 grand per year. More would be welcome, but only if it didn't require much additional effort. More important is the people in my life, and the time I have to spend with them. I prefer the idea of being semi-retired, working no more than 20-30 hours per week tops for most of my life (maybe a bit more for the first few years).

The four hour work week supports much of this, and I'm reading that now, but my first exposure was this article a few years ago:

Lifelong Semi-retirement

[Kylark]

Holy synchronicity, Openeyes. I was wondering, this morning, whether a four-hour work week is a doable or worthy goal, and here I see it, underlined, in your comment! I love it when the Universe winks at me!