They can also help others who can benefit from their wealth. They can also use their wealth for destructive aims while their fellow humans do not have the bare essentials to survive. What anyone does at any one time depends on one’s value system, purpose in life, world-view, and philosophy of life. A person who works for the unity of humanity or strives to develop solidarity with other fellow humans and has a sense of the common good would use one’s wealth and resources differently from the one who has no social sense. While there are some rich people who use their wealth for the benefit of the poor, there are many who hoard wealth at the expense of society that helped them to achieve it.
In a well-ordered society the gap between the rich and the poor will not be large. The rich will be honored not for their wealth but how they spend their wealth for the least in society. In fact there will not be any rich and poor. A spirit-led person works and acquires wealth and possessions for the well-being of one’s family and society. Such a person does not flaunt wealth and possessions. In a consumer, materialistic world, power and prestige acquired by money determine almost everything.
In such a society success is measured by the amount of wealth one has and what one can buy and possess. Gautam who had boundless wealth renounced it and went after enlightenment. Christ who emptied himself to become a man lived a life of the spirit and was not known to have material possessions. Gandhi who could have acquired immense wealth chose to live a simple life devoid of pomp and circumstances though according to a wisecrack it cost quite some money to keep him in poverty. True great men and women of the world did not go after money or solicit funds to build great institutions or places of worship. All that shows greatness is measured by the content of one’s character as Martin Luther King, Jr., said. That also shows greatness can be achieved by all. The secret of greatness and spirit-life is the integration of who one is, how one works/does, and what one has, that is, the integration of being, doing, and having.
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