The Rich and the Poor

For the rich, the world is a global superstore where any commodity can be bought for a price. But it’s the commodity of power in preserving wealth and a position of authority over others which motivates the desire for permanence and prestige. The wealthy class fear losing the respect of those in their immediate circle and are troubled, not by financial fluctuations but through being seen to be attached to their material possessions.

It’s one thing to have enough money to be protected from the normal anxieties which arise from being financially challenged. However, for anyone convinced that winning the lotto or accumulating wealth is the solution to their troubles, they’ve yet to realise the poverty of delusion. Money in excess of one’s needs is a noose around the neck, whether in the form of others who want to cash in on the situation or the paranoia created by the fear of loss.

A poor man who has always had nothing cannot know what it’s like to be wealthy but thinks he does. He desires what he does not know and assumes it will make him happy. Similarly, a rich man unaccustomed to poverty and hardship cannot know what it’s like to be poor. He desires what the poor man has: the absence of responsibilities and the need to uphold his worldly position. The poor man can be rich in spirit and in no hurry to better himself in the eyes of the world, while the rich man can be poor in his shallow perception of human nature.

Without the poor there would no rich; for each supports the other as a barometer of injustice and greed in the world. Money and greed run the world, whereas love and truth run existence in the space between the barter and trade of emotional force.