photo by funkandjazz
The only reason we are not rich is us and not others.
It is convenient to think of others as inhibiting us of holding us back and of robbing us, but the real reason we are what we are is that we are afraid to be anything else. Great rewards require greater risks and therefore by definition also a greater chance of failure. Yet for some reason we want the spoils of war without risk of injury.
I am no exception.
What if I tell you that you could have the good life you want without much risk and that you would still be too afraid to have it?
If I would sell everything material I own, dissolve my 401(k), cash out my stocks and pour everything I have into an investment that would guarantee me a fixed passive income, no matter how little, I could probably live comfortably with that income somewhere. Money isn’t worth much here (US), but it is easier to come by then in other places of the world.
If I could drum up enough cash to buy a cheap house in some other part of the country, I could rent it out and live on the rental income in another area of the world quite comfortably. I could probably even have luxuries many people in such country could not afford and yet I wouldn’t have to work another day in my life.
But in reality I am far too scared to even try and I bet you are too.
I am too scared to give up everything and to break down all bridges. I am too scared to plunge head first into an adventure like this, even if it could mean financial independence. I am too scared to live in a country with a “lower standard of living”, never minding that it does not get much lower than working yourself to death in your dead end job.
Instead of trying my luck at a life we all dream about, I whore myself out to corporations who do not value me as a person but consider me a “head count”. Instead of quitting work I work harder every day for the illusion of safety that the corporation offers me. Instead of being financially independent I live on a paycheck exceeding what most people on this planet make in a year, yet it barely lets me cover cost of living here.
How stupid of me.
Maybe we can blame society for setting up these crazy norms of nobility of hard work. Maybe we can blame our schools who only taught us how to be good workers and never taught us how to think. Maybe we can blame corporations for using every tool at their disposal to keep us enslaved.
Or maybe we should blame ourselves for being cattle and not even knowing it.
