Comment by more_corn

I’m not poor. But I also didn’t sacrifice my morals in order to be rich. (Ok granted I made some strategic decisions away from service to others and towards more money, so that was a compromise of sorts). But I also made a few decisions where I could have got rich(er) but didn’t because it was incompatible with who I want to be in the world. Got an offer to go work at Facebook before most people had heard of it. Turned it down because the product offered nothing of value to the world. (Even though I could see it was the next big thing)

It’s easy to get rich if you’re willing to screw a bunch of people to do it. A better question might be to ask someone like Bill Gates if you’re such a good person why weren’t you a good person when you were getting rich? He headed Microsoft when it was behaving like a big bully, crushing competition behaving badly, heck, they invented FUD. If he was any good he’d have been good along the way and he wouldn’t be as rich. (Probably still pretty rich though).

Warren Buffett is a great example. Pretty nice rich guy right? Got his start buying up American textile companies, wringing the last remaining value out of them, laying off the workers and selling off the assets. If he’s so great why is he responsible for destroying the livelihoods of tens of thousands of fellow Americans? Getting rich usually amounts to taking more than your fair share. (I had a ceo who got rich while screwing me out of my shares) If you realize that and care about doing the right thing you won’t do it.

If you’re so smart why hasn’t that occurred to you yet? Surely you realized in high school that career choices that benefit humanity don’t pay well? Surely you made a conscious choice at that time to either take care of yourself or take care of others. Surely you’ve seen opportunities for wealth at the cost of taking advantage of others and not taken them?