RE: Wealth Recontextualized: How The New Generation Of Crypto-Millionaires May Be Rewriting The Rules Of What It Means To Be Rich...
Thank you for the great piece @rok-sivante ! I very much like your stance on wealth creation, and the responsibility element behind it that you highlight. I wanna stress the first part of your post, where you are talking about people holding negative emotions against money and wealth. I see one of the immediate reasons for this being that money has more or less been equated to 'breathing air' for the majority of people on the planet because, let's face it, most people day-in day-out face hardship and struggle to make ends meet (and of course that's where crypto-investing could help myriads of people change their situation). But the problem is that, again the vast majority of people, do not engage with investing whatsoever, and additionally have no idea about the crypto space anyway (it's our job to fix that). And the issue here is the values and education that our society has with respect to money and its use; the majority of people go about purchasing goods or services, or even worse liabilities, with the spare money that they get in their pocket, instead of acquiring assets that give them passive income streams. There is a short-term gratification element here as well as a tendency to 'show-off' to other people, a by-product of our commercialized and consumeristic society. And because the current approach taken by most people, along with the rules of the game in our capitalist economic systems, ends up putting them deeper in the hole, despite all their hard work, they end up hating money.
Should we be ok with this status quo? Is it a zero-sum game and inevitably most people will be at loss (because of their values, approach or situation) and we should be ok with that (putting people at fault for not educating themselves properly and having higher aspirations and being smarter)? Or should we be actively trying to change this and level the playing field? Perhaps trying to give equal opportunities to everyone, in terms of education, knowledge and means of participating in wealth creation mechanisms, is enough (and the crypto space is all about this). Or is it enough? Because having met thousands and thousands of different people in my lifetime (in both Greece and the US), I only know ONE other person outside my extended family who has invested in cryptocurrencies (hopefully this will soon change as I am heavily hustling my close friends to also participate). One of my passions is trading and investing and no matter how often I talk to different people from all walks of life about it, people who are not familiar with the subjects, and try to pursuade them and guide them on how to also do this (because I firmly believe that everyone should be investing, no matter how small an amount they can invest) still very very few people actually get back to learn more and engage, to the point where I'm standing here thinking that they are just silly and I'm wasting my time, and anyone who is smart enough to take actionable steps to change their lifes and make smart decisions, well they will do it anyway without my help.
What's your take on this? Have you also faced the same disappointment when trying to open the eyes of people, and have them change their practices? Or is it a lost cause and we should just focus on bettering our families' condition and securing ourselves financially. Curious to hear your experience here.
Thanks again for the awesome post.
*P.S: I left you a comment on your "Purpose: Destiny, Delusion, And The Discovery Of Truth..." post which I think you would find interesting, also trying to connect with you. Was a little disheartened not to see a response, but I'm sure you just missed it, so no biggie. Anyway, thanks for your great work man, always enjoying reading your work!
"Should" is a tricky word, as the question alone is invalid without a set context and the presupposition that there is an agreed upon desired out - i.e. IF a certain desired outcome is to be achieved, then one should take a certain step to achieve it. But without the clearly defined context - and in and of itself, NO. But, people are used to thinking in binary right/wrong. Truth is, there is no right/wrong except for within the boundaries of a given belief system or game with certain rulesets...
Anyone who tried to tell you that you should be ok or not ok with someone is full of bullshit, because they are directly trying to impose their belief system on you. So, I could say yes, we should be ok... but who am I to declare what your belief system should be? It's an override of your body that damages us both and deprives you of the opportunity to think for yourself to discover truth - which continuously evolves.
To a degree, yes - individuals are responsible for not educating themselves and having higher aspirations. Not to say they're "at fault" - because then again, we'd be imposing our beliefs that their state is inferior and flawed relative tou our ideals. And that view that they're responsible for themselves may be partially true in some contexts, though not as an absolute. i.e. pretty much everyone has access to the internet nowadays and can pursue their own path of learning if they really want to better their lives. Though at the same time, not everyone is equipped with the activated intelligence or ambition to direct their time and energy constructively in directions that would generate their preferred outcomes - this might sometimes get blamed on genetics, which is essentially just coding - and if they have no fucking clue how to rewrite some of their coding disabling them from ascending, well, they might be kinda fucked no matter how hard they try. So in that sense, it'd not be their fault - it's nobody's fault, really - just the state of things in evolution, and not something that we might be in a wise position to intervene with in every case.
Earlier years ago, kind of. Though, I was alot more immature then, somewhat self-righteous, wanting to impose my ideals onto others and the world so it/they fit my idealized image.
That saying, "you can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink..." disappointment only comes from unfulfilled expectations, thwarted intentions, or undelivered communications (reference: Landmark Forum). If you're "trying to have people change their practices" - again, it's an override on their bodies. Against the laws of nature. The disappointment there is cuz you're trying to shove water down the horse's throat expecting it to drink because you think it should. If a person wants to change their practices and invites counsel, you might be able to effectively guide them - though hoping they'll change with any sort of attachment is always a losing situation for both, and you'll always end up disappointed because of the expectation itself that they'll live according to your belief system.
Great answer, thanks for giving me your view and opinion (for me to freely do with whatever I choose to, as you posit). I agree that my disappointment stems from my expectations - had they not been there, it would have left me untouched. I tend to forget this, and will remember moving forward. Our individual belief system coming into play here when it comes to our view about the status quo, in effect has to do with the interplay between our idealistic view of how things could be versus a pragmatic take on reality, and we would be left in pain if we settled on one side of the spectrum, and perhaps even cynicism on the other side. I know I will continue to try to educate and help as many people as possible when it comes to these issues, of course not trying to shovel down their throat what I think they should be doing, yet again a little push out of care atop of a mere friendly recommendation could go a long way.
Thanks again for engaging @rok-sivante. A pleasure hearing your thoughts.