After reading about David Cameron's intention to increase the taxes of high earners:
Money is the prey animal of the rich. Attempting to take money from a rich person is like trying to take away a wolf's kill from under its nose. The latter enterprise is a lot less painful if the wolf has previously had its teeth and claws removed.
Gosh. This is an evocative and helpful illustration. It explains a lot.
AND it helps one make even more sense of that rich-and-the-eye-of-the-needle remark by Jesus, doesn’t it?
Interesting image. I should like to be rich a while to test the premise. 😉
FWIW
jimB
So when are all of you going to give your money away and live with the poor?
Now that gave me a chuckle, JimB!!
(Hmmm. Word verification = antaidat. Coud that be anti-idiot?)
A good question, troll, and one that makes me feel guilty everyday. But this post is not about the poor and those who are not poor. It is about high earners and, as far as I know, none of my regular readers fall into that category. As an unemployed person living on £65 a week jobseekers’ allowance, I certainly don’t.
But what’s your problem? Why are you so unhappy?
There’s a reason Joe has a saying:
Wealthy people are two things: wealthy first, people second.
Well, Anonymous, some of us have. I completely closed out a life over 20 years ago when I entered the convent and that was a huge risk – especially since I didn’t stay in community but subsequently took vows as a solitary. I long ago reconciled myself to someday being on the streets perhaps.
Given that I’m now on my own, I do have to have some income but, I assure you, it’s very small. I have lived in voluntary exile – a centuries old ascetic practice – and I have lived and/or worked among the poor in both Ireland and South Africa as well as in the US.
I would add here, by the way, that the traditional religious vow of poverty does not mean the same as true destitution. A person cannot have an effective ministry in that state. However, it does mean that we don’t accumulate wealth and that we are not to be motivated by the idea of accumulating wealth.
I do not have to live with the poor, I am the poor. Fact my income is well below the government’s “poverty level.”
FWIW
jimB
Now then you lot, stop ganging up on the poor troll. He would have felt really good about his droll retort when he sent it in and has probably not beaten his wife up all day. Proving to him so quickly that he is both boring and really quite dumb will have pissed him off something chronic. He’ll probably go out and beat up a homosexual because of you.
In response to a rejected comment:
You should try a different cologne then because you certainly smell like a troll.