Everyone can, if he tries? I am not sure about that.
I just started reading the book called “the Science of getting rich” by writer Wallace D. Wattles and he made an interesting thesis at the beginning of the book. “There is a science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are learned and obeyed by any man, he will get rich with mathematical certainty.” He believes that the process of building wealth is like a law of nature, the same causes have the same results. If you do certain things, in a certain way, you will become rich, no matter your background, your capital, or your Intelligence.
His reasoning: We see all kinds of people who are rich. The most intelligent people can be rich and the greatest fools. He, however, admits there is a certain advantage in being intelligent and born rich, yet the person who was born rich, must not strive for wealth, us average or even poor people must build the mindsets and ambitions to build a business and become rich. If the environment would matter, then everyone of a certain location needed to be rich, but everywhere you see people who become rich and people who don’t.
So far, it seems Wattles is taking quite a liberal approach. And it is nice to think that effort is rewarded and I certainly believe that victimization stops or reduces the willingness to take responsibility for one’s own situation. Yet, it implies that everyone who does not reach financial freedom, which Wattles claims to be a right every human has, is the only one to blame. Wattles also make the mistake of simplifying things. Let’s say my brother and I are both born into a poorer family, just for the sake of the argument. He becomes successful and rich, I don’t. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t follow Wattles’ instructions to become rich. But there can be other reasons too. I might be struggling with my mental health or physical health, I might have received less love and care than my brother from our parents. Perhaps I am less attractive than him, and people are less willing to help me, invite me or invest in my ideas, if I am even capable of having them. I always said that Intellect is a success of the privileged who have the support to think about self-growth, society and math. Others have only one thought: to survive, to battle their depression or other sickness. Privileged people have Intellect, poor people have wisdom, because I believe you need to have a certain modesty to be wise and hardships teach modesty. However, wisdom is mostly not paid by bills.
The philosopher John Rawls believed in the lottery of life. If we were to decide how our society shall look like, before knowing what role and what status we will have in that society, how would we design that society? We would want it to be as just as possible, right? That anyone has the chance to be successful, since we don’t know, if we will be in the position to work twice or three times as hard as other to achieve success.
Victimization can be an obstacle to responsibility, but ignorance can be an obstacle to harmony and without harmony, there is no growth.
So what do you think? Do we decide what will become of us, or are things more complex to you?
