Pros and Cons of Being Super Rich

• Riches improves quality of life. Most rich people are unhappy. Happiness can't be bought.
• It’s better to be rich than poor. And it’s nice to be super rich. 
• Affluent – Still have to work. If you are comfortable but still must work to support your lifestyle then consider yourself affluent. 
  Rich – Don’t have to work. Rich people means they do not have to work on stuff they don’t enjoy. They have time and they can do whatever they want with it. In America, net worth of  $10mn or higher are Rich.
  Super rich – Have to work to give their money away. Super rich are with net worth in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars and up. They have more money than they could ever need for their personal lifestyle. The question of not just what to do with their time but what to do with their excess money.
• It’s nice to be super rich. You’ll fly private jets. You’ll eat nice food all the time, you’ll have aides and servants who will save you time. Problem is as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. 
• The private jet doesn’t feel so special the 20th time you’re on it. Rather than marveling at the fact you’re on your own plane, you’re more likely to just compare it to other private planes you’ve been on.
• Happiness is the day to day bounce of emotions while happiness meaning is what you feel when you step back, take a minute, and reflect on what will go in your obituary. 
• A billionaire has said, “Nothing is going to make you feel better. Philanthropy is absolutely the best drug I’ve ever taken.”
• You can meet anyone in the world. The best part about being famous is the chance to meet other famous people.
• Unlike in the past, today there’s a tiny difference between the rich and the American middle class in terms of quality of life.
• Bill Gates has a bigger house than you or me, but for what really matters, we’re the same.
• Your quality of life is determined by the quality of your relationships.
• Any person you befriend while you are atop a perch of power is just trying to get something from you or so you suspect, and suspicion alone is enough to careen a relationship.
• Many presidents declared “no new friends” upon entering the White House.
• Being super rich can be lonely. If you try to talk about the perils of being rich and famous, someone will accuse you of self-pity.
• If you are a good person, the weight and duty of being responsible with the billions you have becomes a burden. And then it almost becomes criminal to pass that burden onto your kids. It is very hard not to have it run your life.
• Being super rich disconnects you from your fellow humans.  If you can’t remember the last time you waited in line at the airport, or if it’s been years since you drove your own car to a supermarket, you’re living in a different world. 
• Money changes your sense of morality, and usually not for the better. As you move up the class ladder, you are more likely to violate the rules of the road, to lie, to cheat, to shoplift, and to be tightfisted in giving to others. 
• Empathy goes down. It’s harder for the super rich to remain compassionate towards ordinary people.
• Perhaps wealth needs its own goldilocks story - not too much, not too little. Money is like gasoline while driving. You never want to run out, but the point of life is not to go on a tour of gas stations.
• Ideally you want to have a sum of money that is large enough to get most of the advantages of wealth but not its side effects. With enough money, you live entirely on your own terms.
• People are very critical of the wealthy in the UK. In the US entrepreneurs are celebrated.

That man is rich, whose pleasures are the cheapest ... Henry David Thoreau
Honesty is incompatible with amassing a large fortune ... Mahatma Gandhi 
In a country well governed, poverty is to be ashamed of. 
In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of ... Confucius

Living life of importance is egoistic, where as leading simple & frugal life has more fun and fulfillment. VIP life in total disconnect in a different world is just miserable. It is better to have sufficient money which gives security, freedom from compulsion to work and to pursue one's own interests & choices. Anything more is burdensome and less is fatigue. We should never lose things that money can't buy. Finally we should never consume more than what we produce. Wastage and  excess emissions are nothing but abusing nature.

Poor people don't work. Why?

• Poverty is not just life below the poverty line, its living under financial stress, where it is difficult to maintain quality of life. A life in poverty means living deprived of sufficient food and nutrition, education, proper shelter, sanitation, clean water and so on. This points to the need of seeing poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon.
• We are all children of one and the same God and, therefore, are absolutely equal.
• Poverty in India is attributable to (i) social inequality leading to exclusion and marginalization (ii) illiteracy (iii) population (iv) gender inequality (v) unequal distribution of wealth (vi) faulty economic reforms (vii) corruption and (vii) colonial rule.
• India has more than 400 million (30% of total population) people under the poverty line. In 1947 when colonial British left India, they left 70% Indians in deep poverty. Seven decades later, poverty is down to 30% despite the multi fold increase in population. Despite the progress, even 30% poverty means a huge headcount in a country of 1.3 billion people. 
• UNDP in its 2017 report estimated India’s poverty at 41% i.e. 528 million.
• There are lazy poor people just as there are lazy rich people and laziness is not the only cause of poverty. There are many factors such as economic instability, cultural discrimination, physical or mental disability, or familial problems. 
• Many people ignore the poor, justify their dislike of the poor, or view their poverty as deserved because they think that those in poverty could come into wealth if they just worked harder. 
• Working harder is an useless advice and an even more ridiculous mindset. In a free market society, people are rarely compensated for hard work. They are compensated for valuable skills and smart working.
• Poor people may be born poor, but they don't have to remain that way. They choose to remain poor. Coming out of poverty is neither easy nor hard. External helping hand is essential to come out of poverty quickly.
• A poor person can't think or plan his old age years. Poverty restricts forward thinking and planning. 
• Work is a pillar of our society. It supplies income that enables families to thrive, fosters a sense of pride and belonging, provides dignity and purpose. For these reasons vast majority of prime-age people work for pay. 
• Few of poor don't work, which robs them of this sense of purpose, affects their families’ prospects for prosperity.
• The presumption is that poor don’t earn enough or work hard enough.
• The reasons poor not working primarily is females with children citing family and home responsibilities, and others citing disability and illness.
• To meaningfully reduce poverty, public policy must focus on improving the health of poor, decrease work disincentives and providing work supports to poor parents such as disability assistance.
• But when a lack of employment leads to poverty, it raises important questions about the role for government. Government can make poverty less painful through income transfers etc, but the question is whether government can encourage those who prefer not to work.
• We can either accept the status quo of leaving millions of people in poverty, or continue funding large government programs that transfer income from working taxpayers to the nonworking poor.
• In India, the labor force participation rates* among prime-age workers have declined over the past three years from 48% to 43% suggesting that India is facing a work problem. China's labor force participation rate is 71%, in USA it is 64% and world average is 63%.
  *The labor force participation rate is the percentage of the population that is either employed or unemployed.
• The children growing up in a poor family just need to work hard to escape poverty.  Poverty has been proven to be a leading contributor to a child’s social, emotional, and behavioral problems. For children, poverty is an extremely difficult situation to overcome; and even if the children overcome it, they run the risk of being damaged by it for life. Children living in poverty are at an extremely high-risk for mental and physical disorders, due to lack of nutrition, physical stimulation, and emotional development.
• In USA, the reality is that one in six Americans lives in a household that is “food insecure”.
• The rich are great beneficiaries of poverty. It is very cheap to be rich in India. In a poor nation, the social elite can pass through life without facing any competition. The less democratic a nation, the safer it is for the rich.

Poverty is easy to spot, but hard to define.

Those parts of India which have been longest under British rule are the poorest today ...  Nehru

India is a rich country inhabited by very poor people ...  Manmohan Singh

As opposed to the western ‘trickle down’ capitalism India needs a comprehensive “human development” plan in order to really crush the widespread poverty. The present economy based on GDP growth, India is only promoting inequality that sustains by keeping the poor in poverty. It needs an economy that supports millions of small and medium enterprises that are suitable to employ low skilled poor people. Agriculture must be made sustainable and remunerative. Focus on good governance to root out corruption. Promote women empowerment through education and healthcare to deal with population growth.