Free time + health =/= being rich \ stacker news ~meta

440 sats \ 10 comments \ @provolone 18 Oct 2023 meta

zaps forwarded to @birdeye21 (25%)

This is a general reply to the post "What does being rich mean to you?"

My initial reply to this post is that being rich means having the ability to influence the system in which you participate. To change something about, not only where you exist, but the broader context in which you exist.

Many users reply in effect that to be rich means to have the freedom to spend their time as they choose and their personal health. I am a person who values these things so much so that I will sacrifice situations in which I feel as if these values are compromised (i.e., I don't go out if I can anticipate that going out will be a drain on me).

Does this make me a rich person? No. This makes me a person who is willing to sacrifice opportunities at life to preserve my perception of my health. Personally, I believe we live in a culture which has such a poor value of health that the baseline is literally not being ill, but I digress and this is another conversation.

In my opinion, valuing having the freedom of how you spend your time and enhancing your health is not the same as influencing society or culture, or civilization at large. It's not even the same as influencing your immediate community.

These values are necessary for the contemporary individual in the context of our civilization. Successfully imparting these values effectively to the point of influencing the decisions of the individuals in your context to the point where the system itself is influenced: that is wealth.

Unfortunately, these replies "triggered" me because they say so much that the people who write them value their individual autonomy over the system itself. This does not mean that I believe you "should" value the system more than yourself, what I am trying to say is that valuing your individual autonomy so much like this means you are just barely escaping the values of a system which is otherwise oppressing your freedom of expression.

Valuing concepts such as personal health and freedom of time in context of defining wealth does not mean you have hit upon some sort of "enlightened" definition of what it means to be rich: it means you are barely escaping slavedom in a system which has otherwise enslaved you.

-- Provolone, il mago

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54 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 18 Oct 2023

Are you defining rich by what you give rather than what you have?

121 sats \ 0 replies \ @provolone OP 18 Oct 2023

I think what I mean is to be rich is to have so much that you can spend.

And perhaps the implication is that the really rich spend wisely.

So yes, if we are using markers of an individual’s autonomy to describe their wealth, to be rich is to have so much of a particular value/concept that we can give and share it with others, i.e. I am so rich in health and time that I can freely share my energy with others without worry of it being misspent.

22 sats \ 1 reply \ @birdeye21 fwd 18 Oct 2023

Not sure anyone is trying to suggest that having free time as richness is an “enlightened” concept. I mentioned that many bitcoiners probably agree — it is what many feel (or come to feel) as time passes.

I think many have different interpretations, and there’s quite a lot of overlap, but for many, they simply don’t have the capacity to think beyond their own individual autonomy. They’re so deprived of humanity already from said oppression that terminating the system is second (or third, or fourth) to their immediate well being. Hence why freedom seems more self oriented.

We both agree that individual autonomy is essential to freedom.

I think it starts with the immediate self, and as you become more “rich” you can afford to share with more of the world.

Have to see where the person is coming from. It’s a luxury we get to discuss this stuff online as is!

I agree with your interpretation in response to k00b, perhaps more elaborate than just having “time” to spend on what matters.

150 sats \ 0 replies \ @provolone OP 19 Oct 2023

It’s a luxury we get to discuss this stuff online as is!

Could not agree more.

I'm not trying to rail against taking care of yourself first. I'm trying to argue that that value alone does not constitute "being rich" in the way that money can buy influence - unless you learn how to transform your values into influence.

I admit that my argument leans into an appeal to emotions because of a "Wake up sheeple!" perspective.

Thanks for the original discussion. Gave me something good to write about :^)

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @xz 18 Oct 2023

I missed the original post and discussion. It seems an interesting dichotomy.

The wealth that can be experienced within your own lifetime.
The wealth that can be created by your legacy.

valuing your individual autonomy so much like this means you are just barely escaping the values of a system which is otherwise oppressing your freedom of expression

I agree there seems to be (an unhealthy) trend to value self-preservation (above all else?)

Escaping is subjective. You might escape through disengagement with, or compartmentalization of a problem, but there may be times to retreat, refocus, and re-engage in order to achieve greater aims.

I guess what might be construed/misconstrued as escaping could also be a hack (in a broader sense) like a life-hack, to change a condition, even the playing fields and regain wealth?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @provolone OP 19 Oct 2023

The trend is indicative that the system we live in no longer serves the purpose of giving people enough purpose to live well. IMO.

To restructure your value system seems nearly the only way "out." I'm a fan. I argue that it cannot stop there if you want to "be rich" in the sense that money buys influence i.e. living in a way that your values shape the world around you.

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @DiracDelta 18 Oct 2023

Yep... wealth is related to power and actual changes made by a human agent, as opposed to a thoughtless parasite like Chamath who may become a billionaire, but is actually poor. By this metric, most billionaires are rather poor for they are incapable of actually putting "dents in the universe". They are simply along for the collectivist ride.

On a sound money standard, this aberration reverses and those who actually do things that shift and accelerate the course of human civilization accumulate the wealth in a virtuous cycle of ever-increasing productivity. Most people are emotionally incapable of fathoming just how great the world will be on the bitcoin standard, because they are not part of the critical path of life that has had the most lost upside. The 1000x technologies that are slowed to 10x.

Perhaps we could say that a great many people feel financially poor, billionaires included, and this is largely due to the non-ergodicity of a portfolio vs the total market that all are subject to without sound money. People who feel poor struggle to have values with which they can build healthy lives around, and ironically, are incapable of investing boldly and making real financial returns. Lots of billionaires gonna get rekt on the bitcoin standard when they find out what real competition is like in a free market.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @provolone OP 19 Oct 2023

most billionaires are rather poor for they are incapable of actually putting "dents in the universe". They are simply along for the collectivist ride.

brutal lol

I appreciate your optimism :^)

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @0260378aef 18 Oct 2023

My initial reply to this post is that being rich means having the ability to influence the system in which you participate. To change something about, not only where you exist, but the broader context in which you exist.

Why do you want to have influence over the system? First, you should reflect on the question of what objective evidence you have to believe that your opinion about the system should even matter.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @provolone OP 19 Oct 2023

what objective evidence you have to believe that your opinion about the system should even matter.

This is a slave mentality IMO.

Do you have anyone you care about who will still live after you die?

Do you see people around you living in misery?

Aren't you on a website whose premise rests on a counter-culture currency that could potentially change the whole system?