Definition Essay: How Do People Define Rich?

The word rich is thrown around like a rock on the lake shore. Very similar to the work love, people use it like it has no meaning. Many seem to ignore the fact that there are hundreds of different ways to become rich. Of course, some are handed the money due to deaths in a family, retirement, rich ancestry, and lots of other ways as well. In my case, that is not how it worked. But for some reason, often times, close to about five times a day, I would get called rich. I was not a kid who had all the newly released hockey gear or electronics. As a matter of fact, I did not get a cell phone until I was thirteen years old. Out of my friend group, I was the very last one to get a cell phone. Growing up playing hockey, my dad had a rule that I could not purchase a stick over the price of one hundred dollars. My dad would gladly like to be the first one to tell you, hockey sticks are not cheap. Still, I would get called rich by my friends. I had a bigger house but nothing breath taking. I had four siblings and a dog, we needed a bigger house to fit all of us. Luckily growing up, I did not take much offense to the criticism. As a matter of fact, I did not really take it as criticism when I was younger. The term never really hit deep until I reached high school. The slurs continued as I attended a public high school after graduating from a private grade and middle school. Perhaps that was why kids called me rich. Shortly after my freshman year, after I took a personal finance class, the way money worked was clearer to

In the book Money and Class in America written by Lewis Lapham, the way Americans look at money is exposed. It compares other nations view on monetary value against that of the Americans. It is a fact that we place more value on money than anything else. This book illustrates the corruptness of the “American Dream” as it focuses money as the “currency of the soul” and through the dream, men remain free to rise or fall. Their life is the product of the effort and the decisions put forth by them.

Is everybody supposed to be rich and wealthy? If so then nobody would be truly happy or rich.

Rich, the word itself implies an abundance of one thing or another, the question is an abundance of what. Many think of the sufficient amount of money one may have: elegant houses, luxurious cars, etc…; however, the word rich takes on a new meaning when reading the short story “The Rich Brother" by Tobias Wolff. In this short story it becomes evident that the definition of rich apparent in the story is being content with who he is and to look out for the ones around him more than looking out for himself. At first reading, readers believe that Pete is the rich brother due to his plentiful amount of money; however, with further analysis Donald is the rich brother with his generosity, willingness, and fulfillment in life.

Do you ever think if you struck it rich your life would be wonderful? Well, it might be if you live a solitary life, but if you are planning on living a happy rich life with many friends…forget about it! Money is not capable of buying true friendship from people.

Some people assumed that once you get to America, they’ll be automatically wealthy, but to be wealthy you have to work for it. The idea of being wealthy is intriguing because when you’re rich, you feel superior. You feel like you’re on top of the world. An example of being on top of the world is in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby is pretty wealthy himself. He has a lot of money, nice cars, and a huge mansion. But he also wasn't exactly wealthy because he didn't feel it. He was missing one key aspect. That is, being with the love of his life. He had all the riches in the world that he could dream for but he wasn't satisfied. He wanted to be with his one true love. Wealth isn't always just about money. There’s a wealthy in the aspect of having a lot of money and nice, luxurious things, and then there’s the wealthy of just how you’re living your best life.

In chapter one the authors record how the millionaires they interviewed described themselves. The way wealth is described in the book is by the amount of appreciable assets that a person may own, not the amount of material assets. Most millionaires are self-confident and trust themselves in their ability to amass wealth. They do not rely on someone else to provide that. They are frugal in their consuming of goods. These individuals do not choose to show the world that they have wealth. They make economically smart decisions about the clothes they wear, the cars they drive, and the food they eat. As quoted from the book, “The foundation stone of wealth accumulation is defense… They become millionaires by budgeting and controlling expenses, and they maintain their affluent status the same

In the world now people think wealth means you are powerful, or important to society. In the world that is true, even back in the Anglo-Saxon time period this was also true. Back then if you were not wealthy you were not powerful, and your kingdom was not strong enough, and other could attack. The Anglo-Saxon time period was the time Beowulf the poem was written, this is a story about a man that is so powerful he can kill anything. In this poem wealth is about being powerful, ending feuds, and having a great future for the kingdom you are living in.

Wealthier people are often those who work hard and put in a huge amount of effort into achieving their goals.

These individuals cannot be millionaires!!! Because their appearance doesn’t look like millionaires, they do not act like millionaires, they do not eat like millionaires, neither do they dress like millionaires, and they do not even have millionaire names. Then where are the millionaires who look like millionaires then? Being wealthy, affluent, or being prosperous is not defined in terms of physical properties. On the contrary, those people we term as being affluent get much more longing from possessing sizeable quantities of significant properties, than from showing a high-ingesting way of life.

We just finish watching "inside job" And what I can say is wake up America or the Americans. I feel like most Americans don't realize about income equality in America. Because they are use to getting screwed over and not knowing it. One thing is that Americans have a very poor understanding of how unevenly wealth is distributed in America and would prefer a system that is much more egalitarian "(asserting, resulting from, or characterized by belief in the equality of all people, especially in political, economic, or social life.)"egalitarian definition from google. Meaning each individual should have the opportunity to make money in this system. People may gather this wealth through investments, owning businesses and working at jobs.

How does one earn the title of wealthy? Authors Dr. Thomas J. Stanley and Dr. William D. Danko have studied how people become wealthy for over twenty years. They have conducted research, written books, conducted seminars, and advised major corporations on whom the wealthy are and what are the characteristics of the affluent in America. The research for The Millionaire Next Door was comprised of personal, as well as focus group interviews, with more than 500 millionaires. A survey of 1,115 high net worth and/ or high income respondents was also compiled. The authors define the threshold for being wealthy as having a net worth of $1 million or more. This is one distinction that the authors make in comparison

I always believed that you are considered wealthy when you make a high income. According to the authors, most high income earners are not rich, which surprised me. Most people with high incomes fail to accumulate any lasting wealth. They live hyper-consumer lifestyles, they spend their money as fast as they earn it. I always perceived millionaires as living the lavish life with their big sport utility vehicles and huge mansions. Well I was wrong, in

​ Without a doubt, those who are “rich” and those that are “poor,” in terms of material possession, share a similarity: the desire to be rich or richer.  No one really wants to be “poor.”  Those who are rich are rich through inheritance or have mastered the know-how to become rich. Such as Prince Williams, who obtained his wealth from his mother and father, Princess Diana and Prince Charles of Whales.

One is considered rich or wealthy depending on his/her financial ability. Affluence in rich people can be measured by annual income or consumption, lifetime expenditure or income, and wealth. Consistent with how the taxation system works, affluence should be measured annually. This might mean that those who are rich in a particular year may not fall in the same class the