Note: I am not revising this post because of its length, and I typically avoid touchy subjects like this anyways because I quite honestly don’t like angry messages in my inbox about situations more complex than above most of our heads (INCLUDING MINE).
The really short, condensed version is on the very bottom… a little TL;DR. The super-short version is that creating wealth ethically benefits everyone else because to make money you must give value to other people. This article focuses only on ethical wealth, no durr building wealth without ethics is wrong and far from noble. 🙂
Yesterday a friend hit me up asking me for some advice on his response to a deep ethical question. I liked it, but one statement triggered me: he said that we are all “killing people by omission” by not donating more money to charity.
Not only do I disagree with this, I think it’s very backwards and that getting rich is one of the most noble things you can do assuming it is done ethically.
Okay, let me make this 1,000% clear: ASSUMING IT IS DONE ETHICALLY! Like yeah, you can rob a bank and get rich but that’s fucked up.
Also, let’s make a very clear note: I normally avoid political talks because it gets people triggered and creates circular fights that lead nowhere. The truth is, situations like poverty & homelessness are so fucking complicated that neither of us can really understand it.
So when I give my thoughts here, note that it’s not 100% complete, I’m still open to well-constructed arguments, but most of the time I ignore taking part in such debates because they go circular and no understanding is had… but time is wasted. I will try put counter-points in my thoughts so we can understand the other side too (in the end to better reinforce the side that getting rich is good).
The only reason I debated with this friend was because he’s an epic friend, and he had a bad belief that needed some shaking up. I was surprised when he wanted me to write this blog post about the talk, but I figured fair enough, let’s go and write one slightly political post.
Here is why getting rich is noble, and more importantly it benefits everyone:
The Complexity Factor
Note: this is SO complicated, the whole issue of charity / getting rich / people being poor so try to keep an open mind and think of how everything affects everything. Some solutions sound bad but work well, and others sound good but turn out bad. Try to think deep. This article will be all over the place, building a huge point at the end. Hang tight.
Again: this post is gonna be all over the place. Strap in and try let it all come together. I confess this won’t be my most coherent post as I’m a bit tired and sick. I’ll try make it all wrap together, but I’ll probably have to write a 2.0 later and take days properly researching & writing.
The Inspiration Factor
This part is debatable because some people respond to success of others differently. In an ideal world, we’d all get inspired.
I am one who gets inspired. When I read “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss, any chance of me going to University & getting a job were shattered. I was so damn inspired I decided I’d be an entrepreneur for the rest of my life!
Because of his book I now make money online, and have traveled the world for almost 2 years now visiting 13+ countries and living in at least 4 for over a month.
When you get rich, you inspire others. Well, some others might get jealous, but in my humble opinion it’s kind of a choice.
You can look at someone and say “I don’t have what you have so you don’t deserve it” or you can say “wow I’d like to create that too!” One mentality keeps everyone poor & limited, and the other uplifts the world.
We need people getting rich and then inspiring others because it gets people out of the shit-hole that they’re in in the first place!
Have you ever been around a couple that has a great relationship? It is damn well inspiring to get a great relationship yourself! Conversely, how have you felt when you observed a couple get abusive or fight? Probably drained.
Get rich and inspire others. Some of my biggest breakthroughs have been sitting next to millionaires who have told me that it’s possible.
The Guilt Factor
The belief that “we are killing people by omission” [by not donating our money to charity NOW] is unhealthy because it prevents you from taking care of yourself. It assumes that responsibility of others falls on you, which it doesn’t.
You can only take responsibility for yourself. Yes, life is kind of fucked up. But you shouldn’t hold yourself back because someone else is starving. That’s called “crabs in a bucket” mentality.
I don’t meet a lot of rich people that are guilt-stricken with the suffering of others: instead they focus on themselves, then their family, then their friends, and then finally the world.
Is that so wrong? No. Absolutely not. It is wrong to force someone to take care of someone else.
Should you try? Absolutely. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t try, or that if someone gets hurt and needs help in front of you that you don’t help them.
All I’m saying is that someone starving in a far-off country is far different than a true crime of omission, which would be for example not feeding your children. By the way I was taught in school, a “crime of omission” involves a factor of responsibility, which is not present in the case of charity.
Occasionally people try to make you feel guilty for not taking care of others- again though, that’s just wrong. It holds your life back. For reasons I’ll describe later, you should never hold yourself back and guilt yourself over those “meaningless” purchases and “little luxuries” (don’t get triggered yet, more on this later).
In short, feeling guilty because someone else is suffering only holds your own life back. For reasons described later, that’s terrible for everyone involved… (seriously, this is a huge point, please read on)
The Real Cause of Starvation/Poverty
The argument my friend primarily made was that donating money would feed people that need the money, instead of spending it on “useless purchases” (ie. massages).
The problem with this, in my opinion, is that it doesn’t address the actual CAUSE of the starvation or poverty. It’s just like medicine how people get prescribed insane drugs without addressing the cause so they never fix their mental problems or health problems.
Throwing $ at the problem doesn’t solve starvation. You can “give a man a fish for a day, or teach him how to fish.”
Most people that are poor don’t know how to participate in the local economy. Poor nations have a poor economy. Donating doesn’t fix that cause, but can cause complications. More on this later as well.
However getting rich stimulates the economy, at least in your local area. In cases such as internet businesses you have the capacity to outsource to places like India which sends money to their local economies.
What’s better: donating $5 or building your business, hiring Indian programmers and supplying them with a living?
Now if your business collapses, they still have skills/past experience to get another job, compared to just throwing money at them- if the money stops coming, they starve again, but if they have skills (and you incentivize people to get skills), then the economy improves.
The outsourced Indian workers then have money to spend into their local economy too which boosts everyone there.
Starvation is a Recurring Problem
My friend made the mistake of saying that “donating $300 saves a life.” Well, no- actually not.
We don’t live in a 3-dimensional world. We have also the dimension of times (and who knows what else?).
When you donate $300 to save a starving kid, you do not necessarily save their life. You buy them a month. That’s it. Then they die. Problem solved?
Now in some cases, you send someone $300, and then they get a job the next month and you save their life and they live happily ever after. I’m referring to chronically terrible places where starvation is a problem (ie. some African countries).
Again, this goes back to the whole “fix the cause thing.” You could send someone a fish, but unless you can send a fish a day for the rest of your life you don’t save their life.
You are one fish poorer, and they die the next day anyways. Problem not solved.
Donating… Often Fails
Google “donating does more harm than good.” The studies that have been done are… shocking.
Let’s be honest: a huge reason we donate is because we want to feel good, nothing else. I tip $5 and I feel like I’m a good human. Did I actually improve the world?
Let’s say you donate fish to a poor African village. Great, you solved hunger. But guess what: there are long-reaching effects; it’s too short-sighted to think that you solved the problem.
Now all local food industries have been disrupted. Who’s gonna open a restaurant or fishing company when they could get fish for free, from you? What happens when the donations stop- well there are no local businesses (because they couldn’t survive), so now everyone goes hungry and dies!
Am I saying you should never donate? No. I’m just saying you really need to research which charities actually have impact.
Another example of this is some “genius” who thought they should send 1 million shirts to some African country. Great, right? Now the locals have clothes!
Wrong. Now everyone who owned a clothing business goes out of business. You’ve disrupted the local economy.
Again, research this on Google. A simple Google search will reveal countless studies.
Energy & Vibes
The rich children stay rich adults, and the poor children stay poor adults: why? Answer: energy & vibes. You could also replace this with “mentality” to be less metaphysical.
It has been scientifically demonstrated that everyone has a “comfort level” of wealth. If you lose your job, you’ll scramble to find another at the same level plus or minus 10%.
The same is true though if you make too much money and aren’t prepared for it. Have you heard of the countless lottery winners who ruined their lives?
So many professional athletes & lottery winners get A TON of money, but then they lose it all because they were not prepared to handle such wealth in their life! They still had a “poor personal mentality” and lost all their wealth too fast.
On the other hand, you’ll also see rich people have their business fail then a couple years later they’re all rich and comfy again. How?
I’d recommend reading “The Science of Getting Rich,” as there is great information on this. This is also why charity isn’t always effective.
Have you also ever observed a friend date the same bad person over and over? Maybe the habitually date a cheater, or someone that’s abusive?
That’s because the subconscious mind is weird as fuck, and we basically go back to whatever we are subconsciously comfortable with, even if that’s poverty & starvation.
By getting rich you actually inspire others because you directly influence their “vibe” by showing them wealth creation IS possible!
For myself, to make money online & travel the world, I had to do all kinds of affirmations & visualizations just to push back the barriers. Looking back, it isn’t hard at all to do this- it’s just a mental thing.
It’s shocking actually to see me write this. 4 years ago me would be shocked and slightly angered someone could suggest this life is easy.
The thing is, making money online while traveling the world is my definition of “normal” and “comfortable” now. Take away my clients, and I’ll find my way back to this level in max 6 months.
Could you achieve this level in 6 months? Yes, but you have to do A LOT of visualization work & surround yourself with people living this lifestyle so that your subconscious mind realizes it’s possible, and begins getting familiar with it.
The problem with so many charities is they don’t address this deep, root cause of recurring poverty, abuse, starvation, etc.
People DO break out of their circumstances and CAN change of course, it’s just hard. At a very general scale you see that people born into a certain socioeconomic class will likely stay in it.
It takes a lot of focus to move on a socioeconomic class for no other reason than it’s your “vibe” or “energy” or “mentality” or whatever you want to call it.
Getting rich is great because you’re forced to change your vibe, which also changes other people’s vibes (indirectly or directly)! It raises everyone up! More importantly you also stop straining the system and holding others back too.
Everything is Connected- Think 100 Moves Ahead!
The best chess masters are prepared several moves in advance. The problem with many solutions like “just donate your money to charity” is that it doesn’t think of the far-reaching effects of such a thing.
For example, let’s say you start to donate 50% of your income to charity and live like a minimalist.
Now less money is going into your local economy, which also affects the world economy, and by just handing out free money you’re disrupting the economies of people receiving the money, and you’re also not addressing the cause of the problem.
I’m trying to address some of the far-reaching effects here, but you really have to think about it and do A LOT of research.
I’m an idealist at heart (my personality is literally ENFP, and NF types are “idealists”) and struggle in relationships because I’m too ideal- seeing the best in my partner, but not being realistic.
The same is true of so many feel-good programs like “donating” or “charity.” They’re more selfish than good, focused on making you feel like you’re doing something good when really the far-reaching effects are different.
Maybe you do something good today, but how does your actions today affect tomorrow and the following days? As it’s said, “good intentions pave the road to hell.”
Should Billionaires Give Up Their Money?
Okay, so maybe you’re convinced: us regular people don’t really have a huge effect, and based on new research it turns out that donating isn’t always the smartest thing to do.
Furthermore, it actually does better to focus on creating your own wealth than taking responsibility for everyone else (but I still have more writing to do than “the inspiration factor,” so hang tight- I’m addressing other points first).
First we need to address a bigger kid on the block: the billionaires, millionaires, and other ultra-rich people.
Should they be forced to give up all their wealth? They could end hunger for some time. They have SO MUCH money, surely it’s not fair, right?
Important note: we are talking about ETHICAL BILLIONAIRES! Obviously unethical people are a different story.
My friend almost had me here, but then I thought about it: why are people so rich like Jeff Bezos? How did they earn such wealth?
Jeff Bezos created Amazon, which employs almost 650,000 people. It’s safe to say that Amazon has created jobs for over 1 million people around the world (likely tens of millions).
For example, I worked for a client that helped people get products on Amazon. My client literally could not have his business unless Amazon existed! I could not have him as a client unless Amazon existed.
Because Jeff Bezos created Amazon, my former client had an entire living helping other people sell on Amazon (which is how his clients made a living), and how I got paid- by the way, I used the funds from this client to invest in my health, which was poor at the time.
Think about it: millions of people have jobs & a complete living because of Jeff Bezos creating Amazon. He’s done more good in the world than any of us.
Should he be forced to give up his wealth because he has too much and others don’t have enough? Honestly, I don’t think that’s fair. The fact is he created millions of jobs- people have livings and families because of this man.
It’s so selfish and greedy to think that we should take this man’s money away from him because “other people have it bad.” Again, it doesn’t mean that it’s okay that others have it bad, but it’s not morally right to take from people that earned their money themselves.
Jeff isn’t “killing by omission” as my friend originally said- he actually helped more people than anyone else, and so he deserves his wealth!
The same is true of say Bill Gates, who also employs hundreds of thousands of people directly and created several other jobs related to his industry.
Again, I go back to the point of “throwing money at the problem doesn’t fix the problem.” It puts a band-aid on it that doesn’t heal the wound. Morphine doesn’t cure a broken leg- a cast does.
To really understand why billionaires deserve their money, we need to ask ourselves:
Note: also a lot of people don’t seem to realize that “net worth” is not fluid. Jeff Bezos has like a 150 billion dollar net worth, but that doesn’t mean he has 150 million in cash. It can include assets such as his company or real estate.
How is Wealth Created?
This is the biggest question which makes this entire argument valid. If you get wealthy by stealing from others, then obviously being a billionaire is wrong.
Remember: we’re focusing on ethics. There are ethical billionaires and unethical ones, just like there are bad boys and good boys, and bad girls and bad boys, and shit food and great food.
Assuming wealth is created ethically, there’s one primary way to make wealth: provide value to others. I recommend researching more on this topic.
Think about it: why do you buy anything? It’s because you need it more than you need the money, that’s it!
If you provide a product which is worth more than $20, AND people want it or need it, people will pay you for it.
I have no problem paying $150 for a one-way from Phoenix to Montreal because I think that’s an epic value. I would not pay $500 for one-way Phoenix to Montreal because that is not a valuable exchange for me.
When I was young I purchased a lot of video games because they were an epic value- $60 for months worth of fun? The answer was a no-brainer- hell yes!
I would not personally pay $500 for GTA 5 (video game), but $60 is a price point I can handle.
What billionaires do is create products that are SO valuable to society that countless people use them.
Jeff Bezos created Amazon- have you used Amazon? Odds are, yes. If you live in USA, then you will enjoy super fast shipping. With Amazon Prime, you can get free 2-day shipping and sometimes products arrive the same fucking day that you order them!!
If you don’t like someone, you can always vote with your dollar. Order from someone else besides Amazon. Don’t purchase anything related to Amazon. You will suffocate Amazon just a bit from its life force which is money.
Money is neither good or bad. It just is. It’s a tool. Remember that!
In short, wealth is created by giving value. This is true for a job too- you say “$x per hour is what my time is worth,” and then you work at that. Think you deserve more? You must find someone who agrees you’re worth more, and then you’ll make more.
Of course, there are unethical ways to make money such as employee exploitation and theft, but the way to fix this is to inspire people to find better employers and protect their assets better (and occasionally legal recourse).
Because wealth is created by giving value ultra-rich are in no way wrong for what they have.
People like Jeff Bezos created a platform (Amazon) which allows consumers to get what they want at an affordable price, and on the flip side he also employees several employees and helped create several side-industries (such as Amazon consultant & Amazon Ads experts).
Taking away their money and just throwing it away doesn’t help the economy! That’s the key thing everyone must realize. A society does well when money is flowing between people, and new industries and wealth can be created.
When you donate it, sometimes great things happen- that I don’t disagree with, and as a society as a whole that is necessary. However no individual is “killing by omission” by not donating- in fact, on the contrary, by becoming abundant themselves they actually contribute to the economy.
Are you not an entrepreneur? Guess what, you’re still creating jobs.
For example, I have clients that I work for, and recently I’ve purchased some massages here in Bali. I am temporarily hiring these people to work for me, providing the service of a sweet, sweet massage.
Is it unnecessary? Yeah. But it’s probably more effective than just donating the money. I am stimulating the local Balinese economy, helping locals stay in business, and now with this money these wonderful locals can spend this money on things they want in life, which will continue to help their money flow around.
Remember: when wealth flows, everyone benefits and anyone can get rich easier.
A recession occurs when no money is flowing, so starting new businesses is more difficult because people are less likely to buy. Jobs are less easily created, and companies often have to lay people off.
Other Income Sources
Note: there are other sources of income that don’t involve giving value, such as trading in concurrency. I made some money in late 2017 on Bitcoin and Litecoin. I was not providing value to anyone.
These are viable methods to make money, and are still better than demanding others take care of you- because the money can then be fueled into an economy. However I’d personally recommend on giving value because markets always change.
Too often do people get rich with a crypto, then lose it on another investment. It’s a little “hack” through a market inefficiency, and it’s not sustainable in my humble opinion.
The fact is the easiest way to get rich is provide massive value to people.
Can Wealth be Created?
Everything I’ve said is all great n’ all. We’ve covered how donating can disrupt local economies and sometimes isn’t effective (remember, I’m not saying always, just oftentimes- do research on the studies).
We’ve covered how the ultra-rich (assuming ethical) deserve their wealth, and that wealth is created by giving value. We’ve covered how getting rich yourself stimulates the economy and benefits everyone, in a longer and more sustainable way. We’ve covered how you can only be responsible for yourself, and no one is responsible for anyone else inherently.
One final question remains: can wealth be created? Maybe it’s true the ultra-rich earned their wealth, but are they “hoarding it from the rest of us?” Is wealth a zero-sum game?
The short-answer is no. You can look into this more, but I’ll prove it very simply here.
The zero-sum mentality game looks at life like monopoly. If one person makes money, another loses it.
What this neglects is the value exchange- remember, I value the massage more than my money, and then that money can flow back to me.
It also neglects the fact that money is printed off and simply a tool used to facilitate exchanges.
Wealth can be created by this simple fact: we have planes. If wealth couldn’t be created, we wouldn’t have advanced past the caveman era because one man’s wealth would turn into another’s loss.
Perhaps in the grand scheme of the Universe there’s some wealth cap, but right now it’s infinitely higher than we could imagine!
So much energy can be harnessed by solar power alone. Research just how harnessing the entire sun’s power for just one day would power the Earth for… well, a really long time.
Right now wealth can be created by anyone.
Getting Rich is Noble: Helping Others/Yourself
One huge problem I have the idea with donating so much of your wealth away is that it neglects yourself. You’re essentially taking responsibility for others, and less for yourself!
What if you get dangerously sick, but don’t have the funds to support yourself because you have been donating money? Well, you’ll need help from family/friends/welfare. Congrats, you’re now a drain on society, undoing the good which you set out to do by donating.
It shouldn’t even be a moral question to donate until you’re financially set until the age 100.
Google: how many elderly are dependent on their children because they didn’t properly save for their retirement? How many people get life problems, then need financial support?
If you end up requiring the service of others, you undo any good you did because you “take” their money. Some health therapies can be incredibly expensive. If you live in a healthcare-free country, keep in mind that there are still similar situations in which you take money (ie. not being able to pay rent).
Remember: if you invest in the local economy (by improving your ability to give value and spend money in the economy) everyone will become richer.
Now what about friends/family? Here’s a dilemma: should you donate $1,000 to help a starving family in Africa, or use that $1,000 to pay for your spouse’s operation that would save their life?
I think most people would take care of their spouse, and that’s normal & fine. You are responsible primarily for yourself in life. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to guilt-trip you into taking your money. Still, it’s a tough one.
When you get rich, you can take care of yourself first, but then the next line of people you are responsible for: your kids, your family, your spouse, then finally your friends (not necessarily in that order).
What would you do if you donated $1,000 to charity, but then your spouse needed an operation for $1,000? And you had no more money?
Okay, this is an extreme example, but it makes you realize: you need to be rich to take care of your secondary responsibility, which is the people closest to you.
This is the way humanity improves & thrives. You can’t be responsible for people on the other side of the world or random people even in your own city.
AGAIN I MAKE THIS CLEAR: that doesn’t make it wrong that they suffer, and in an ideal world we could just take care of everyone. The whole point of this article is for us to realize that life is so much more complicated that what we’d ideally like.
Anyways, humanity thrives because we take care of those around us. If we get rich, we can take care of those around us. Hopefully those around us stay abundant as well, so that they can take care of people close to them (that we aren’t close to).
Then the cycle continues. This is a bit too idealistic, but the primary point stands: being financially abundant is also about taking care of those closest to you, too, before worrying about others.
Re-investment Into Yourself/Business
Another reason you need to focus on getting rich now instead of donating is for the simple fact that you can donate more later than now. Let’s say your ultimate goal is to donate a lot- that’s great.
But you don’t win the game by donating $1 per day for the rest of your life. You’re better off saving your donation money to invest in your business.
For example, what if I invest $1,000 into my business instead of charity, then I grow my business, which allows me to hire employees & stimulate the economy (so in the end the positive impact is much higher).
Or back on the donation level, let’s say I start to grow my business a ton, then by the time I die I die with a net worth of 20 million. That’s so much more money to donate than if I were to donate my profits as soon as I made them (by re-investing my profits I grow my business, increasing the end donation amount).
I stick fast to the “stimulating economy” part though- a lot of people brush over this when thinking about how to help others.
Self-care vs. Greed
So many people make it sound as if getting rich is some greedy, evil thing to do- but it isn’t!
As demonstrated, getting rich can actually benefit a ton of people. Let’s take my business for example.
I create lead ads for clients. I’m currently focused on realtors- so I get realtors clients that want to sell or buy a home by running Facebook Ads.
I get paid because I’m delivering value, so I’m happy. I can then spend this money on little luxuries which stimulates the economy. I can save for my future (and my future family’s) so that I don’t strain society at all in the event I have a disaster.
If I lose all of my clients, I have several month’s worth of savings to prevent me from having to take anyone else’s money. I am also saving to re-invest in my business.
When I buy things from others, even things which are “little luxuries,” this is not bad- it helps me live a better life, I am not responsible for anyone else, and in the end it’s positive because it gives these people jobs.. the money continues to flow!
My clients are satisfied because they get the value they search for. Their businesses improve, and they’re able to improve their service. In the example of realtors, they get clients and they can help these clients buy/sell a home.
My clients get paid from their clients, so they’re happy. They can do the whole spend money thing I described for me. Their clients then get a product/service that satisfies them. The satisfaction goes around, everyone wins.
By setting the goal of getting rich, I must service more clients. Actually, I now don’t even think about getting rich, my goal is to simply service X clients and deliver Y value because I now know money is a side-effect of giving value.
Wait: before continuing, you NEED to re-read that. SO MANY millionaires do the same! All of the ultra-rich I’ve met focus more on giving value than they do how much $ they’re getting. To get money, you must give value. Focus on that! NOT what you get! Set the goal of helping people and then getting paid!
Anyways, getting rich is self-care, and people that want to take from others love to label self-care as greed, as if it’s wrong to be well-off when others are suffering. That’s fucking awful, so many people get derailed because guilt-vampires put weights on people trying to move up.
You are not obligated to give to anyone. It is nice if you can and do, but absolutely not necessary. You are not killing by omission or committing a sin by not giving. You must take care of your life and inspire others to do the same.
Will you give? Yes. I will give & help others too. Don’t be silly here. The point is just that you can’t feel obligated towards giving, otherwise you’ll feel guilty about creating wealth, and so subconsciously prevent yourself from creating any wealth in the first place!
Don’t confuse self-care with greed. Guilt-vampires do this all the time. The two are very distinct and different.
This is NOT Anti-Charity
This is NOT an anti-charity post, this is a “why you should be rich” post, but often people getting rich are attacked by people saying “you should give all your excess wealth to charity,” which is just wrong to force someone to do that.
It’s clear that I want the best for everyone. If you do wish to donate, do a shit ton of research on how your funds are affecting the economy, whether the charity is legit, etc.
There are so many charities stealing money, living lavish, or doing things which sound/feel good but then disrupt the local economies of people in need, further pushing them down.
If you donate without doing several hours worth of research into the charity, then I’d highly re-consider why you’re even donating. Is it to feel that you’re moral? Do you feel guilty? Do you feel God is watching? Do you just want a quick hit of feeling good, thinking you’re doing something morally right? Were you guilt-tripped by others into it?
One of the beautiful things of getting rich is that you can give back! I love to leave big tips, especially in places that don’t expect it. If I eat an exceptional meal or have a wonderful massage, why not leave a little extra for them to enjoy?
Remember: it all trickles down, and giving in this way benefits everyone. In the case of tips, it’s not putting anyone out of business (ie. giving shirts to people in Africa then destroying the local clothing businesses) and it in fact reinforces wealth-creating behaviors (such as great service) instead of mooching behaviors.
There are several ways you can give to people, including those that are suffering & starving in poor countries. All I’m advising is that you should not let that make you guilty and prevent you from getting wealthy. As we’ve discussed, getting wealthy ethically can only benefit the world.
All I’m also saying is that you need to spend several hours to make sure your method of giving is actually benefiting society. Some charities take a % for themselves. Some do weird tax shit, others fuck up an economy.
Just play devil’s advocate for a while, and once you’ve found the right way to give you”re going to feel AMAZING when you do find the right place to give. Don’t give just to feel good, give to make an impact- and you’ll do great, and feel great.
Getting Rich is Noble
So why exactly is getting rich noble? So many reasons.
In this post I’ve tried to illustrate the point that mindlessly donating your wealth is a bad idea, and rather more selfish than actually getting rich.
Let’s be real: many people who donate do so just to feel good (because the idea of giving feels good). It’s good that donating feels good, or any type of charity. I think that we should all give back somehow. I’d like to try inspire others & help others as I become rich myself.
But we must not be short-sighted with our desire to feel good. Sending $100 to a starving family in Africa is nice but doesn’t address the bigger problems and the longer-reaching effects on their local economy.
It also doesn’t create a long-term beneficial impact for their lives. Sure it feels good, but is it really a great thing to do?
When you work on creating your own wealth, you inspire others to become rich- you also create new jobs & industries, even if you don’t hire others. You can afford extra luxuries, which are NOT bad, and you shouldn’t donate the money to charity instead. Take care of yourself first before considering taking care of others.
The extra luxuries like video games & massages provide jobs to other people. The money gets flowing, and the people that receive your money can then spend it on things. You’re now a player in the world economy.
When you work on creating your own wealth, you guarantee that you won’t become a drain on the system yourself. If you donate half your wealth and never re-invest in yourself (or your business), and then you get sick and require financial aid from friends/family, you’ve now caused a negative impact which just un-did all of the charitable work you did.
It makes more sense to become a millionaire and never donate so that in any terrible worst-case scenario with you, your family, or your friends can receive financial support without draining the system or others.
You need not feel guilty at all about not giving because not taking is already so valuable for society. Are you financially set for the rest of your life?
As hard as it is to say, it is not morally right to assume responsibility for anyone else. You can only take responsibility for yourself, and you shouldn’t feel guilty about that. Take care of yourself and live fully!
That doesn’t mean what’s going on elsewhere isn’t sad- it just means that it’s not your fault and so you have no obligation to take direct action. However strangely enough, simply by becoming financially secure you ensure that you won’t become a drain on society, which makes it easier for everyone else to get wealthy.
You need to invest in yourself, take care of those around you, and be responsible for you. We need to inspire to take the same action and not be dependent on anyone else.
Wealth can be created, and the ultra-rich are not bad (assuming their wealth was created ethically). The ultra-rich are in fact very much deserving of their wealth. We can’t criticize them because they’ve created more jobs & positive effects on society than any of us, so until we’ve contributed similar value we shouldn’t try to “steal” their money by demanding they give it away.
Self-care is so important, and guilt-vampires will try to make you feel guilty for wanting to be rich, as if it’s a zero-sum game, but as we’ve learned wealth can be created. You are actually benefiting the whole world by getting rich.
