| I can't really relate to how these guys feel because I've never been that rich but I can definitely relate to some of that guilt that they're speaking of, watching my own mother wake up every morning to slave away in a factory. Just travel around, go to SE Asia for example and look around. You'll see little 6 years old kids selling chewing gum and bottled water at the bus station. I really can't tell you how I feel seeing this day after day. Little kids should be happy. They should be playing with their friends and going to school. Not selling lottery tickets and chewing gum at a bus stop. When I was young, I went to school with many kids like this. Most of them drop out because their parents couldn't pay for tution and books. While I'm not anywhere close to rich, I might as well be Bill Gates compared to these kids. So I wonder to myself, why should I have all this while they have nothing? The guilt plays itself on many levels. When I feel like I'm slacking off, I think about my mother.
I think about all those poor kids. I've been given so much, yet I'm still not good enough to take full advantage of it. I hope that one day if I ever become rich, I won't be so delusional as to think that that a huge part of success isn't just luck. For some reason, the older I get, the more I keep dwelling on the fact that life is incredibly shitty and unfair to 99% of the people out there. Strange, whereas many people I know instead look at their richer peers and wonder, why shouldn't I have more? |
My parents slaved away working all their lives similarly, and made a point to remind me of these children in their home country that have no chance of living a life like me. I grew up with this perspective and balance that guilt by doing community service and giving back to those less fortunate (note: not blindly donating but rather things like feeding the homeless etc).
These are the cards that life has dealt us, be humble and give back when you can but to dwell on being born into an inescapable standard of living is just mentally taxing and quite harmful after a certain point.