So that agonizingly awful post about making more than you psyche was a lie?
You do not need to be SO rich to have control over your life.
But in my experience truly well-off people tend to be entirely unaware and unappreciative of how much control they do have and are some of the most miserable people I have ever met.
An ...acquaintance of mine is a prime example of said misery: she accomplished more by the time she was 25 than most do in their lives.
She got very lucky in finding a very well-remodeled 850 sq ft basement for $800 in a million dollar home in an upscale neighborhood ( a 500sq ft studio in this area is three times that) she’s been there for a decade. Rent has never gone up, Land Lords never bother her for a thing. Really, since they had moved across the state and the upstairs tenets change so frequently, she practically owns the place
She works for herself, sets her own hours. Makes.. I wouldn’t say a ‘shit ton’ but she is certainly not hard up for cash. She answers to No ONE, not in any aspect of her life and she is VERY popular among our extended group of friends. The only reason she’s so alone is because she has chosen to be.
Yet I have never met anyone so whiny and miserable in my life. If you were to listen to her for five minutes you would think she were the most down- trodden person on Earth. Her favorite line is “ just my luck†which she tends to utter when the ball is entirely in her court and she merely does not want to make a decision.
“ I have to cancel our gaming day ( and ruin everyone else's time) cuz trafficâ€
“ Take the buss. It’s a very direct route.â€
“ No, I don’t like the buss.â€
“ Then drive.â€
“ No cuz trafficâ€
“...then bus it.â€
“ I don’t want toâ€
“...you could carpool with meâ€
“ Noooo I don’t want to put you out.â€
“ I’d be more put out by not getting to game.â€
“ I knooooow and I’m so sorry! * deep sigh* just MY luck I guess! “
“ Uuugh. I just know X is gonna ask me cook a turkey for HIS thanksgiving dinner!â€
“ Don’t if you don’t want to.â€
“ Noooo I HAVE to.â€
“ Why? “
“ Cuz he’s gonna ask me to! “
“ Tell him ‘no’.â€
“ I don’t want to be rude.â€
( biiiitch you’re being rude be whining about it every year.)
Then there was the time she threw a fit because she saw a note in her window sheild and assumed she had been the ONLY ONE to be ticketed for parking in a very public parking lot in the middle of a weekday, as she had done a thousand times before. There was NO logical reason anyone would think this bu tI guess “ Just my luck†was reason enough for her. turned out b an ad for a new game store. It was only in her window because the stickers and plushies in her window showed she was a gamer.
People like this astound me; everything about their lives is entirely within their control yet their locus of control seems so far out of their own reach and I cannot possibly fathom where they obtained this perspective.
But it seems to be the M.O. of so many people.
I myself have so few means and after 36 years of having to answer to nearly everyone and their Mother for the most basic things, you might think I’d be just like them. In truth I’m something of an opportunistic asshole. Always on the lookout for ways to improve
my life and situation. In those times when, as I say “ the ball is in MY court†I fucking smash it.
A couple ( as in A couple) who are friends in their late thirties still work in min wage grocery store positions. The husband bitches, and bitches, and bitches incessantly, yet he remains. The wife bitched far less. One day, she’d finally had enough. She understood the situation was well within her control. She quit. She decided she wanted something else and within 3 weeks she had it.
The husband has learned nothing and sits in a job he hates, continuing to whine.
I posit that unless you have some sort of mental or physical limitations or some other extenuating circumstances ( I don’t proclaim to be all knowing)if you are working as grocery bagger or in the deli doing anything other than managing, it is mostly because you lack ambition and just want enough money to pay rent and buy the video games you spend every second of your time off playing.
Both people in this couple has confirmed this “ I am still in this job because I am complacent. if I really cared, I would quit. Maybe I will once I have finally had enough. My husband is still there- and WILL be there- because he lacks any motivation to improve his life. As long as he can play games at home all day, he is fine.â€
“ To be honest, I am lazy. I don’t care so ling as at the end of say I can stay up until 4 am playing videogames.â€
He is not the only grocery store clerk I know who has no ambition other than to waste his life away playing games every second he is not at work.( but I’m not one to generalize. This is one of those ‘ All A do B, but not all of B is A situations)
What I am saying in this tangent that what many ( not all) are slaves to is nothing more than human laziness and complacency that comes from our evolutionary traits which tells us to avoid risk, live comfortably, grow fat affluent, and breed for the survival of our parasitic species. We’ve enslaved ourselves in service to this desire for comfort and luxury at the cost if truly experiencing the miracle that is life. A species which evolved from the most greedy, violent, little ID monsters never had a chance to be anything more.