Is Tough Love Or Parental Investment The Best Route?
When a lot of people see these rich kids they get jealous. I don't get jealous but I often wonder where the line between being supportive as a parent or teaching your kids the value of a dollar is. I just realize that money is stored energy and time and these "Rich Kids of Instagram" have inherited the stored time and energy of family members who came before them. They were the lucky benefactors of the situation. Most of us on Steemit are the same way perhaps on a lower level. In the United States there was trillions of dollars of infrastructure in place when we were born. Now we walk around with powerful computers in our pocket and have the ability to transport value to people on the other side of the world at the blink of an eye. It is pretty unreal and so therefore we are all rich in a lot of ways.
Now it may not seem like we are rich compared to other people and we have all seen people who we felt were spoiled.
(Credit: Rich Kids Of Instagram)
I have seen this backfire but the lines are so blurred it is so hard to tell. For instance I was just having a conversation with my friend from Southern California and he said that the majority of his friends didn't move out of their parents houses until they were in their late 20's. This was a product of two factors. Partially because their parents provided a pretty forgiving safety net and allowed this and also because cost of living has gotten so high in Southern California that it is tough to live on your own. My friend and his wife rent a one bedroom apartment for $1,600 / month. It is hard to acquire any equity out there.
Growing up my parents always wanted me working. I even lied about my age when I was 12 so I could detassel corn. This was a tough job and sometimes you had to walk through water waste deep where the field had flooded. The kids who would work these jobs were real rough. Usually smoking cigarettes and bullying other kids. The kind of kids that never finished high school. If you don't know what detasseling is it is where you pull the top of the corn stock out so it couldn't pollinate other ears of corn. They were trying to control the breeding of the corn.
It was rough but I guess it toughened me up and around my house you didn't really complain about it being to hard or anything. At one point there was an issue with the check and my mom came to where the bus would pick us up to talk to one of the people in charge. One of the junior white trash thugs was trying to get through to get on the bus and told my mom.......
"Bitch, get the fuck out of my way!"
She was sort of surprised of how rough the other kids who were working the job were and didn't really feel like it was the best situation for my sister and I but we still continued to work the rest of the season until school started. That was just the way it always was. Working for farmers and doing hard manual labor. I'm not saying it was a terrible thing like I was abused or something but at what point does that type of work condition you to think in that manor and seek out those types of opportunities?
I have seen the opposite end of the spectrum where kids never have to work and it is like they have no concept of what things cost. They have a sense of entitlement to them. I even know a 35 year old man baby who has never bought tooth paste, toilet paper, or deodorant. His parents bought him a $400,000 3,000 square foot house that has a direct mountain view.
I feel this has actually delayed his development and somehow his risk tolerance is next to nothing and he knows if he sits back his parents will just pay for everything.
What was most disgusting is that he signed up for free healthcare through the government.
While we are all out here working our asses off he is living off our hard work. It is sickening. I had to cut all ties with him. I can't be associated with Man Babies.
Ultimately parental investment has been very key to certain entrepreneurs' success. Jeff Bezos for instance got a $300,000 loan from his parents in the mid 90's for Amazon.com. That was a lot of money and they were betting on their son. He has done very well with that investment.
Some people would just completely piss $300,000 away. It is just so hard to tell what is to much or too little support.
(Credit: Rich Kids of Instagram)
Should these twenty something rich kids be sent to work at the local factory to learn the value of a dollar or would that actually mess their mindset up and prohibit them from working towards doing the big deals their parents or grandparents were able to execute?
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I think the parents these days that cater to every wish of their children are foolish. It's not sustainable and there is very little chance that those children will invest wisely.
Bill Gates is not leaving his estate to his children. I think people should learn that hard work is important. Those with silver spoons have not accomplished as much as those who have worked their way from the bottom.
I feel sorry for the rich kids of instagram, because they will not learn real world lessons and never understand the fortune that they have.
It is a tough situation. I don't necessarily feel sorry for the rich kids of instagram and I'm not jealous. I would like to be balling out of control like them but it isn't going to be given to me for I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth. I'm sure some of them will be able to leverage their incredible opportunity to generate even more wealth but it will probably be a low percentage.
I know everyone has individual goals and desires, but for me that couldn't be further from my mind. I personally feel far too much money is wasted on things that aren't necessary. In no way am I trying to claim that people should have no discretionary money and should give all to the poor, but when you see a Floyd Mayweather throwing his money at essentially meaningless things, when the true value that is other people are dying each day, for me I can't justify the excessive spending.
I love going to sporting events, I know for some they love cars or watches etc. Nothing wrong with that, but I'd like to see more people with incredible amounts of wealth not just use it on themselves. People are far more valuable to me than vip bottle service and the newest rolex.
That's part of my upbringing and values I have been taught, but I most certainly understand the appeal.
I guess it depends more on how people treat money (if it is a God to people they will be corrupted) and less about what they do with it. I'm sure Bill Gates lives in a pretty nice house with some nice things, but also I contrast him to Floyd, who I believe when he dies will be remembered for being a boxer who cared a lot about himself. Maybe he has a charity, but to me that's PR BS so that he can say he cares about anyone besides himself.
I think we both value hard work and what that teaches us about life @brianphobos
Good perspective on this issue. If I'm still driving a car around with a computer in my pocket, how bad do I really have it?
Yeah that is kind of the way I look at it too. We are living the dream. Don't get me wrong I really like cool cars, jets, and traveling and all that but it isn't like I'm eating dirt sandwiches and living in a 5 gallon bucket.
Agreed.
I wonder how much empathy kids like this will have for other people. Will they understand how blessed they are and be moved to share some of that wealth with the less fortunate? It's okay to be rich, but it isn't okay to be an entitled jerk with no feelings for others, either. Parents of these kids will do best by them, in my opinion, to teach them to not be selfish, and to give back to others who have so much less than they do. If parents of the rich kids can manage to raise decent human beings, whether or not they pay for everything for the kids or not, I think that's all I'll personally ask of them.
I'm with you 100%. I wonder that as well. A lot of them could be stuck up and just think everyone else is poor and stupid while others understand that they are extremely lucky. I understand that I'm extremely lucky. I'm healthy and I have a safe place to sleep every night and don't go hungry. I watched a documentary one time about rich kids and some of them were pretty level headed. One of them went down to the Gulf of Mexico to work on an oil rig. A lot of the guys didn't understand why he would do it but he really wanted to earn people's respect and show that he could do hard work. He also lived in a regular apartment when he was at college when he could have been living in a really nice mansion. There were other kids in the documentary who acted exactly how everyone would fear. Extremely judgmental and the world revolved around them and everyone else was below them. It was a very interesting documentary.
'I can't be associated with Man Babies. '- I like this phrase, maybe an area for future development? I would love to read more about the issue of man babies :D
The United States is full of Man Babies. It is out of control. LOL
Yes it is. Now they have their own store. Tell your friend, but he might already be shopping there if he isn't the owner ;)
Hahahah, The fact that there is an entire store front and that much demand! It is getting worse than I thought.
It would be best for those rich parents to not give crap all to them, telling the kids they won't get a dime the whole time. Let the kids work until say 30-35 and then if they came out well, share the wealth.
Otherwise you get man-babies like you said.
It would be an interesting experiment if rich parents could raise their kid as if they were middle class the whole time. Even buy a middle class house and all that and live an act until the kid is ready to know that they are rich. It isn't practical but interesting to think about.
Good post. Yes, I agree and it is very disheartening to see the fruit. The parents are not doing their children any favors and in fact harming them by providing and coddling them. Of course there are always exceptions as you mention with Jeff Bezos, but maybe when he was younger he proved himself.
Yeah that is true. The one that gets me is Bill Gates. He grew up wealthy but still had a ton of drive. I just wonder where all that drive came from.