10 reasons to embrace poverty

[Capt Worley PE]

OK, I'm convinced....why fight it?

We have been indoctrinated since birth to try to attain things. Success is measured by social status, and that is frequently established by your wealth. OK, maybe sometimes status can be established by your natural abilities, like athleticism, or knowing how to play the trombone better than anybody else, or maybe even stunning good looks. But if you’re just average in all that, and don’t even have the talent it takes to inherit wealth, then teachers, parents and other relations, friends, casual acquaintances – everybody will push you to “improve” your lot in life. So you work hard, put in lots of hours, scrimp and save your pennies, and, 30 years later, you have a spouse and kids, a mortgaged house, car and credit card payments, retirement just around the corner, recession, ulcer acting up, lawn mower is on the fritz, plus you’ve just discovered the heartbreak of psoriasis caused by stress. But you’re “successful” because you have a bigger house than your parents had.

Well, maybe not. Imagine all the opportunities that would be open up to you if you decided from Day One to just chuck that whole idea. Here are 10 darn good reasons to duck the rat race.

List: http://listverse.com/2011/03/31/10-good-reasons-to-embrace-poverty/

 

[YMZ PE]

There may be some merit to this. Ikaria, Greece is a blue zone (people live well over 100 years there) thanks to the stress-free lifestyle of being completely poverty stricken.

 

[MA_PE]

No. 1 reason that middle-class Americans should embrace poverty........Under Obamanomics It's inevitable.

 

[Road Guy]

Civilized people try and make a good life for their family.

 

[Master slacker]

There may be some merit to this. Ikaria, Greece is a blue zone (people live well over 100 years there) thanks to the stress-free lifestyle of being completely poverty stricken.

Maybe the entire country's life expectancy has increased due to the bail out...

Time will tell.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Civilized people try and make a good life for their family.

How's that working in the ATL?

 

[mudpuppy]

The article takes things to the extreme, but there is a lot to be said for living below your means, being happy with what you have, and not trying to keep up with the Joneses.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

The article takes things to the extreme, but there is a lot to be said for living below your means, being happy with what you have, and not trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Yeah, I agree. Completely.

When it gets right down to it, chasing money is at the root of most, if not all, our societal ills. And I'm talking about our elected officials, right on down to the folks on welfare. All of us.

As Glenn Frey once sang, "It's the lure of easy money, it has a very strong appeal.?

 

[Road Guy]

i just read the book, into the wild, (while on the plane back from Denver) it embraces this concept, about a spoiled boy who graduates from Emory and then bacpacks, hitchikes, steals rides on trains to Alaska where he eventually dies.. really good book though!

 

[Capt Worley PE]

i just read the book, into the wild, (while on the plane back from Denver) it embraces this concept, about a spoiled boy who graduates from Emory and then bacpacks, hitchikes, steals rides on trains to Alaska where he eventually dies.. really good book though!

The movie was pretty good. Never read the book.

Growing up in the 70s, we had a lot less stuff. It just didn't exist. Could easily do without it.

Sat out on the porch the other day, and just enjoyed the company, the outdoors, and the cats. Lot more peaceful, stressfree and fun than watching the news.

 

[YMZ PE]

The article takes things to the extreme, but there is a lot to be said for living below your means, being happy with what you have, and not trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Yeah, I agree. Completely.

When it gets right down to it, chasing money is at the root of most, if not all, our societal ills. And I'm talking about our elected officials, right on down to the folks on welfare. All of us.

I agree with the idea of living below your means, but I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to increase your means as much as possible, within the limits of the law.

High earning potential means having the power to fight back when someone tries to push you around. It means being able to say "F you, I'm leaving" to a bad employer or partner instead of putting up with it and feeling powerless because you rely on them for subsistence.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

The article takes things to the extreme, but there is a lot to be said for living below your means, being happy with what you have, and not trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Yeah, I agree. Completely.

When it gets right down to it, chasing money is at the root of most, if not all, our societal ills. And I'm talking about our elected officials, right on down to the folks on welfare. All of us.

I agree with the idea of living below your means, but I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to increase your means as much as possible, within the limits of the law.

Well, everything is a tradeoff. If increasing your means entails spending more time away from the family, is it worth the tradeoff?

I'd say no.

But then again, I think having two parents working while the kids are shuffled off to daycare isn't the best solution either. I know it isn't popular to voice that opinion, but it is mine. And, before anyone gets a case of redbutt over that, I know that's everyone's own choice to make, and I'm cool with that.

Like the government, we as a society don't have an income problem, we have a spending problem.

And I think we, again, as a society, lost track that our kids are the most important thing we as a society will produce.

 

[YMZ PE]

And I think we, again, as a society, lost track that our kids are the most important thing we as a society will produce.

I KNEW it! You DO have kids you're not telling us about!

 

[Capt Worley PE]

And I think we, again, as a society, lost track that our kids are the most important thing we as a society will produce.

I KNEW it! You DO have kids you're not telling us about!

Gosh, no. I told you, Biblical scholar have noted that'd be the fourth (maybe the fifth) sign of the apocolypse.

I did it (didn't do it, more accurately, I suppose) for the good of humanity.

See, I really am philanthropic and positive about our future!

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

If you can't produce anything nice, don't produce anything at all...

 

[Capt Worley PE]

^^There's that, too!