07 Dec W. C. Fields

“A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.”

A funny line because we have mental associations and make generalizations about the rich which bear little truth regarding an individual who happens to be rich. The undoubtable truth is that the rich man is simply a man who has money. When the truth is revealed and we realize our mental constructs are illusionary is the essence of something funny.

Being rich is a matter of money, but otherwise it’s meaningless. Any inferences made based on someone having money is poor judgement. Good judgement is more valuable than money.

Money comes and goes. Good judgement doesn’t necessarily assure money coming, but it’s helpful in keeping it from going.

Poor judgement and good luck can bring great wealth, as in heavily playing the lottery and winning. Good judgement, unlike poor judgement, more likely assures our basic needs of food, shelter, security and health. Once our basic needs are met, we are absolutely rich. Realizing this truth is good judgement.

When we are absolutely rich but perceive ourselves as poor relative to others, we will always be poor because we have poor judgement.