Are rich people the enemy?
On the phenomenon of hating the rich
Welcome to The Mind of Murphy, my digital garden for planting new ideas—and possibly also mental illness.
As you may know, I’m a fan of the political left. Partly because they’re more fun to be around but I think most importantly because the general train of thought that characterizes most leftists tends to be closer to the truth.
Not truth with a capital T, not truth in its totality. But generally speaking, closer to accurately depicting reality—not as we would like to see it—but as it actually is.
But there is one undercurrent of leftist thought that doesn’t really vibe with me which is this idea that rich people are evil, perpetuators of these barbaric systems that are responsible for suffering of all kinds from exploitation to genocide and everything in between.
There is an argument to be made. And I can respect those who make it. But this is where I would respectfully invite my beloved comrades to consider an alternative possibility: the rich are victims too.
If you are sociologically or anthropologically inclined, you’ve without a doubt made an observation, consciously or not, that most people are, for the most part, byproducts of their environment.
Social environment. Financial environment. Ideological environment.
All the environments.
We live in a culture that emphasizes things like individualism and personal choice but if we are being realistic, we can semi-accurately predict pretty much everything about your life by just looking at your ZIP Code. We can make an educated guess as to your intelligence, the kinds of things you might do and say and believe because at the end of the day, human beings are like a sponge. We absorb and respond to the world’s around us.
Obviously, there is nuance here, but I think the idea generally holds true. You are your environment, which means the kinds of people you surround yourself with, the things you pay attention to and think about, and the world that you imagine yourself living inside of.
To borrow an idea from John Vervaeke, there is an agent arena relationship where the arena that you participate in is significant in this sense that it gives you a sense of purpose direction, and even autonomy. For the rich, they run in circles where the only arena that matters is business
The reason rich people never feel content, no matter how much money they make is not because they are evil or greedy, but because they’ve spent so much of their lives inside of this arena—where money is an end unto itself—that they simply cannot imagine anything else.
They are the people who took it the most seriously.
Sadly, I am poor. But I have rubbed shoulders with people who are wealthy and they do not lead lifestyles that I would ever want. Don’t get me wrong, it often looks nice. Living anywhere you want, having a second home, renting an entire island for your wedding and so on. But these pleasures come at the cost of ruthless and constant self criticism and insecurity.
The reason they were able to achieve financial success to such an extent is because they’ve essentially molded their entire sense of self into something that can make money. It’s almost like they are self exploiters.
One of the wealthiest people I know literally had a mental breakdown because their entire life was just nonstop, high-intensity work.
And if we take a step back, we need to seriously ask ourselves why anyone would do that to themselves? Why can’t they just take a break and relax? Why don’t they just take that pile of money and retire for a few years or chill tf out, you know?
The problem is that this would mean stepping outside of the only arena that gives their life meaning. This is where their primary sense of self is derived from.
It would be similar to someone who takes their religion very seriously, and then asking them to stop going to church.
Who is the agent outside of the arena that gives his entire life meaning?
But I also think there’s a huge component of social isolation that comes from financial success. I’ve experienced this at a personal level because I was born into destitute poverty. But after winning a few little lotteries in life, I was able to luck out and achieve a modest middle class lifestyle. I’m still deeply in debt and have to keep working jobs I hate for the rest of my life, but I have enough disposable income that I can occasionally splurge on something nice like an exercise bike so I can hopefully cycle off this winter bod :(
People treat me different now. Idk how to explain it exactly, as it is all quite new to me. But there’s been a vibe shift. I’m no longer a “fellow poor” in the eyes of friends & family—which really sucks. My reclusive nature has been amplified to the extent that I’m basically a hermit.
And I can only imagine how much more alienating and isolating this would be if it were a significant amount of money. What if it was enough to pay off all my debt, or turn me into a millionaire?
I can only imagine that it must be horrible having everyone in your life seeing you as “the rich person.”
When you couple this with the fact that the rich tend to spend most of their time working, you end up with a situation where the people with money are almost always completely alone. The people in their lives are always employees or business associates or have some other kind of functional utility behind the relationship.
There are no real relationships.
How fucking horrible would that be? No one to be yourself with. No one that you could ever really trust because they might just be scheming to find ways to get your money. How would you ever know?
So you’ve got these rich people who are completely isolated. They have no real friends, and often times they’ve spent so much of their lives at work they don’t have happy families either. Surprise surprise.
They are entirely alone, and the only thing that gives their life meaning is business and working and money.
Is that not incredibly sad? Can one really be expected to wipe away their tears with money when they are functionally deprived of some of the most important parts of life?
My friend, this is the lived experience of the rich.
Sure, they can buy anything they would ever need, but as the old saying goes, the most important things in life cannot be bought. And those are exactly the kinds of things these folks need but sadly, can never get.
Did you like this silly little brain dump?
I’d bet you enjoy my real essays ever more