Anybody who has access to a device with a screen has seen it — ostentatious displays of wealth in everything from billboards to the supermarket line.
All one need do is spend an hour online to experience it: influencers and their entourages embarking on jet-set, elitist vacays. It seems the lure of a behind-the-rope lifestyle is irresistible for those whom life has blessed. For the rest of the world, a more grim reality awaits.
A great question arose on Reddit recently, with holdmyhand pondering whether those at the top table really know how to live:
“What are the things the poor people know that the rich don't?”
A Class Apart
It is a curious thought. What would happen, for example, if society suffered a terrible catastrophe and was forced into an agrarian or self-sustaining way of living?
User Delicious-Praline had a great first post, receiving many upvotes in the process:
“1, 001 ways to prepare a potato.”
Stretching The Weekly Shop
Though, who is to say the elite can't prepare a potato? I am sure multi-millionaire chef Gordon Ramsay would beg to differ. However, I do get the gist. Those who need to stretch the weekly grocery budget will attest to the resourcefulness necessary.
A similar response came from fae-lunaire, who shared their take.
“For me it’s rice, right now I’m doing good living it up with my discounted boxes of zatarans [sic] and frozen veggies, but if things get bad again it’s crazy how far a 50-pound bag of rice can take you, also skimp on expensive groceries when you have money and buy spices it makes being poor way easier down the line.”
Keeping on The Lights
This user, munch-the-gunch, was a little less humorous, and must be feeling the rather sharp pinch of an altered fiscal landscape that is hurting many citizens.
“How long it takes for the power company to shut off your lights off it you're late on the bill,” munch wrote.
This was echoes below by almost-queen, who said, “And how to arrange payments and time them just right so that you're balancing electric, cable/internet, and water.”
Character Building
However, not all people consider a struggle to be negative, considering the fortitude life's difficulties can instill in you. This Redditor , Zach20032000 was candid about the question:
“What to do if you'll ever find yourself in a month without money,” he wrote. “Everybody can lose money and become poor,but it feels a bit more ‘safe' if you already went through it and know how to survive with as few as possible.”
By ‘safe', I am assuming he means self-reliant. Teetering on the financial edge can hardly be referred as safe — though, I do get the sentiment.
Got Powdered Milk?
Clearly, being at the top is a privilege, though we must remember that many self-made success stories came from nothing. This quote from SmoothLikeVinyl really shows how hard some people have had it:
“When we were kids my mum would make the powdered milk in the blender and then pour it back in the carton so my sister and I would think it was real milk and not the powdered crap we hated.”
Now that is a tough gig. That poor mother probably had no choice, but on the other hand, that kid must still really appreciate the taste of fresh half-and-half!
There are many stories of woe out there today, though people have many resources at their disposal to make money. However, it is important to remember where you cam from and who you are.
Wealth must be appreciated but never taken for granted.
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.