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| quote: | Originally posted by tiesto14
Trancer-X
What you said really bothered me, when you said money does not buy happiness!
I grew up in NYC to a family of wealth but I going to public school in Manhattan I had many friends who were dirt poor. Friends who never saw their parents because their parents had to work 3 jobs just to buy food and pay the rent. Friends who had to go straight from school and work hard labor right after school up until 11pm at night then do their homework and get to bed at 2am in the morning only to have to get up at 5am to take care of their younger sister/brother because their parents were not there. Friends who wore cloths with holes in them and went through the day eating only Saltines, 2 twenty five cent juices and a bologna sandwich (which consisted of 1 piece of meat and 1 piece of bread rolled up) because they could not afford anything else. Friends who had no video games, no computers, no CDs, no toys, no headphones, no cars, no cloths, no nights out to unwind NOTHING..Not a damn thing. Friends that had no health insurance, never went to the dentist, hadn’t been to the doctor for a physical in years, couldn’t afford glasses, medicine, gloves in the winter and walked in a pair of used Pumas with holes in the soles in the snow they got from their uncle that is in jail (who went to jail because he stole to feed his own kids). Friends that practically raised their siblings, never got a birthday or Christmas present, had to cut their own hair with scissors they stole from art class. Friends that had to share the same bath water with their mother, brothers and sisters because there wasn’t enough hot water, so their baths consisted of getting in for 2 minutes then getting out. Friends that had to steal toilet paper from school and could only shit in a toilet at the Fang’s Chinese take out restaurant on the corner because their plumbing in their apartment didn’t always work. Friends who had to risk dieing, getting shot, getting stabbed or be beaten up by racist cops as they walked from school to work to home in Washington Heights. Friends who never knew what it was like to go to a club, a bar or a party because they had to work JUST to eat.
Then there is me…I came from a good background and never had to worry about such things. But there was a point in my life when I was all alone and saw what the world is made of. My father moved to the Chicago and I lived with my mother who was dirt poor (my father made the corporate cash)…anyway my mother ended up getting evicted from our apartment and I had no where to go. My sisters could not take me in, my brother had no room, my father and I were not speaking and all my friends could barely help themselves, my mother was a lost cause and I had $40 in my pocket. I had 24 hours to vacate the premises and could only take what I could carry at the age of 19. I wore 3 sets of cloths at one time and had 2 duffle bags..i had to leave everything that would not fit behind for the landlord to either throw away or keep for himself. So here I was at 19…I was working but not making much…. I had 2 duffle bags and the clothes on my back.i walked out of my building and looked both ways and broke down…I had NO WHERE TO GO and NO ONE TO GO TO!!!!
So I walked the streets for a few hours and decided I would check out a shelter (since it was cold out)…So I go this shelter on 34th street and they turn me away because they were full, so I went uptown a little to 43rd street and got the same bullshit…I said fuck it and walked the streets for the night…finally falling asleep at 6am while people are heading to work…
Anyway to make my story short…. I made it out alright I ended up going in with my girlfriends family which I NEVER thought they would let me…but on MY OWN…. I now own my own business and am happy….
But let me tell you something, my young and naïve friend, when the shit hits the fan and you find you have nowhere to go and no one to help you and you have nothing in your pockets and are faced with living on the streets with absolutely no hope what so ever…then and only then come at me with money doesn’t buy happiness…
You are an absolute smack in the face to all the people that struggle in this world…as you sit behind your thousand dollar computer, your CD/MP3/Vinyl collection, your trendy cloths, your car, your parents, and the countless other things you take for granted…. you have not lived the real world…you philosophize about the ways of the world and the ways of people yet you have never experienced life….all the books and all the internet sites you visit can NEVER teach you that….so before you preach to me with your self righteous condescending views, walk a day in some of my friends shoes and not sit behind your computer screen in your parents house with the heat on and your mommy cooking you dinner and still wiping your ass! |
Actually, I was kicked out of my mom's house when I was 18. I had $100 to my name so I went to the bus station and took off 200 miles to the beach. I had made friends (you know, those people that want to hang out when you're not an asshole like you seem to be) that had a place there for the summer. I slept on the couch until I had enough money to get my own pad. I got a job as a valet at a Hotel because that was all I could find and I figured it would fit nicely into my partying schedule. It was fun and I made enough money to support some heavy drinking as well as some other minor extra-curricular activites. Then it just happened that one thing led to another and I finally grew up. I'm not tied down by any corporate structure, I can take any path that lays before me. I really don't answer to anyone but myself, and I've been living okay. However, at some point I will need to satisfy my more creative urges, will want to start a serious business, write some books, wander the earth, fall in love and eventually get married, maybe take a stab at producing some electronica, go hang-gliding, etc. There are many things that I hope to accomplish but even if I get through just a couple of them I will be more than happy.
Anyway, I'm sorry that your outlook on life is so skewed from your overly traumatic experiences that you seemingly have yet to cope with. (see also: http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...threadid=236332 )
I have relatives that are mega-rich but at no time did I ever ask them to help me when I was down. I actually kept a good distance from most of my family for many years.
I was born in the late 70's so no, I'm don't depend on mommy and daddy... I never really did. I also haven't had health insurance for about 14 years now so you can chalk that one up on your list.
Through friends as well as through my own adventures have I seen wealth as well as dire poverty. I still give the homeless change while many of my (usually Republican) friends think I'm an idiot for doing it. While I can't say that I'd want to be poor, I also can't say that being rich would bring me happiness. That would be more than just an artificial, superficial happiness - that would also be self-deception.
My grandfather had probably never felt any love in his life. His mom died when he was six, his dad remarried to a step-mom who didn't want kids. He was taken to and for the majority of his adolescence was raised in an orphanage. He made his way through this world finally becoming a General Contractor and making some nice dough through many large building projects. He didn't make any real money until he was in his 40's as that was when his business took off. He had vast wealth but he died one of the most tormented and miserable people that I will have ever known. It almost brings a tear to my eye thinking about how sad he must have been. He was also one of the only people in my family who I had ever really been close to and I knew his pain from a childs perspective. He didn't want me to see how sad he was and I'm sure he tried his best to hide it. And this pain was despite a nice car collection including several nice Porsches, an estate with a guest house and pool, a sixty foot Hatteras sport-fishing boat, etc. All of that money and he was never able to find the dealer that sold happiness. There isn't one because you can't buy it! It's an emotion 
I don't have time to listen to some poorly hypothesized formula of happiness in this life. I know people that left the corporate world because their jobs caused them so much stress that they had to sit on the shitter about a dozen times a day, had peptic ulcers, etc. I could be talking about a (former) major bank CFO, not some minor player.
I've also had friends in some of the worst sections in Baltimore City that were always getting their electricity turned off and such because they were so broke. I've also had friends that just didn't care about money, or about anything for that matter.
But money doesn't buy HAPPINESS!
It's not like I haven't lived for the past three decades, I've just lived differently and have interpreted my world differently than you have. (Thankfully!!!)
I've had the time to look into myself and figure what I'm about. Maybe it's time that you started to do the same, because whatever your issues are that you're still wrestling with - well, I'll be nice and say that they seem to be affecting you in a very negative way as evident in your posts.
Money is just an instrument, a medium of exchange. The ancient Sumerians used to use shells as a means of exchange, but now we just use fiat money in our Federal Reserve's fractional reserve system.
You definitely can't take money with you when you die, which (in the grand scheme of things) will be very f*cking soon! So take care and enjoy life while it lasts! Set your eyes on a prize, but don't let yourself get caught up in the worshipping of a means to an end.
And please don't expect me to answer any more long posts like that because I do dislike typing and I also don't really have the time to be responding to such flimsy arguments.
Peace!
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