Adjusted Philosophy 105: MUST A PERSON BE STINGY TO BE RICH?

Why are majority of the rich stingy? Study suggests that most of the rich are always miser when it comes to their resources. When acts of generosity are weighed, it tilts towards the poor and middleclass than the affluent as supposed.

When it comes to generosity and liberality toward those in need, could it be said that only the rich understood the Chinese proverb that “you cannot eat your cake and still have it”? Not really so, especially when you look at the situation from an unbiased balanced perspective. I strongly believe that attitude towards money and the poor have a direct bearing on this rich people stingy behavior.

Attitude Towards The Poor:

The rich are usually complacent and feels superior to the poor because they believe their money can buy them anything they want including the poor man himself. Because of this disdain he has toward the poor, he always entertains this nightmare of coming to poverty himself. Consequently, because of this fear, he becomes so tight-fisted toward all he has.
Some abrasive ones among the rich believe that using their money to assist the poor will make them insignificant when the poor man becomes independent of them. Little wonder we see some rich snatching the little belonging to the poor.

Attitude Towards Money:

The rich man knows all that money can buy and has an overestimated view of what money can do for him. In his imagination, the money is a very massive protective wall to him and his family. He craves to make this “protective wall” as high and massive as possible. Consequently, how dare you try to remove some bricks from this “protective wall”!
Again the rich bask in arrogance and grandiose speeches because the money acquires for the rich man, bragging rights which he stands to lose if the money is no longer there. Hence they appear taller in wealth as the poor gets shorter in income.

But ironically, the average life span of the rich and the poor are virtually the same and oftentimes little more for the poor. Many cardiovascular illnesses associated to the rich and elite are rarely found among the poor. This is because “sweet is the sleep of the one serving, whether he eats little or much, but the plenty belonging to the rich one does not permit him to sleep”. – Ecclesiastics 5:12.