Stigma Against Wealth

People love the idea of Robin Hood, taking from the (bad) rich and giving it to the (good) poor. It sounds nice, but it is something that should stay only in stories and movies. People often falsely believe that rich people with money should have extraordinary responsibilities to justify their monetary situation. It is as if people think that a wealthy individual owes them something for being wealthy as if it is a mistake of justice that that person is wealthier.

People who have wealth are expected to give it away to people who do not deserve it. Society puts pressure on rich people to show their benevolent side and spend on typical “good” deeds. If they find that a wealthy individual spends all their money on life’s comforts only, they make sure to degrade them publicly and try to give them a bad reputation.

I remember one time I was sitting down at an airport terminal and there was this young couple sitting behind me. The guy was reading an article on his iPad. After about two minutes into his article, he leans to his wife and says, “I don’t get these people, they have so much money and people are still sleeping in the streets. It makes me sick.” I didn’t know why he said that, but after I took a curious look over to his iPad, he was reading the Forbes top 100 wealthiest people list. He had those remarks for people who had built companies that employed millions of people, served billions, and worked hard to get to that status.

It is well documented how much most of these people give away through their own non-profit foundations. What people don’t understand is that the wealthiest 2,000 people in the world are still only worth $8.7 trillion out of the $280 trillion of the wealth around the world. With 7.8 billion people on Earth today, they could only give away $1,160 per person. Certainly, the poorest of people on Earth would benefit for a little while with the $1,160, but with a worldwide per person all income rate of $10,000, that $1,160 won’t go very far.

So, if driving a luxury car and living in a big house automatically gets you labeled as a bad person, one who is greedy, self-obsessed, untrustworthy, and selfish, it doesn’t really matter in the grander scheme of things. With Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Mark Zuckerberg giving way approximately $150 billion, they won’t even make a dent in the perceived need. I personally know several billionaires and these specific ones have always presented themselves as givers and not takers (okay most of them)! Most are humble people, not flashy, with no useless boasting! On the contrary, we see a lot of middle-income people be the exact opposite with their pettiness.

What Jennifer and I did was start up our own foundation to funnel our sweat and monetary equity through to serve our community. Originally to fund speech, occupational and physical therapy for children, the model has grown into a full-blown Pre-K school for medically fragile children who would not only not get the therapy they need with the intensity they need it, but they also wouldn't normally get the education to prepare for K-12 and the socialization with other children including typically developing kids around them. Check it out at ApparoAcademy.org

Seeking prosperity and betterment is also present in the Holy Bible, so if you are thinking that rich people are bad, then you should understand God’s perspective on it all as well. We'll talk about that on Monday.

For the rest of you, if you ever want to talk with me directly just reach out via LinkedIn or through our mobile community app, Createyourself.com

Have a great weekend, Gordon

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