The Accidental Billionaires By Ben Mezrich

According to the article "Can Fame and Fortune Make You Happy?" by Mackenzie Carro both fame and fortune does not make someone happy. To begin with the first reason why fame and fortune does not make someone happier is because the happiness is only short term. For example, in the text the author uses this quote "Its the type of happiness you get when you buy a new purse, it fades quickly." Lasting happiness cannot come from having the money to buy new things such as purse. This portrays that the "happiness" people get from fame and fortune is short term and does not achieve true lasting happiness. The second reason why fame and fortune does not make people happy is that there are terrible downsides to being a celebrity. One of these downsides

Often heralded as the world’s greatest nation, the United States is also considered home to the world’s greatest authors. Reputable authors such as Fitzgerald, Twain, and Steinbeck remain relevant even through the washing waves of time. One such timeless author, Ray Bradbury, ventured the hazardous path of taboo to write of change. Through his novels of innocent youths evolving into children enlightened beyond their years, Bradbury utilizes the motif of time, innocence, and the philosophical movements of existentialism, transcendentalism, and romanticism to describe catastrophic events the American culture could face if existing destitute judgments continue to prevail. Ray Bradbury dared to reveal his voice.

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland in November of 1835 to a family of handloom weavers, a group hit remarkably hard by the mechanization of the textile industry. Abandoning the minimal expectations and the now almost invaluable job of weaving in the Scottish industrial cities, Carnegie's family emigrated to the United States in 1848. After years of work and experience in the expansion of the steel industry, Carnegie obtained a general logic of arguments about labor to the broader realm of social relation, giving specific attention to the role of private upper-class wealth in a democratic society.

If Tyler Durden from Fight Club was sitting inside $340,000 Lamborghini Aventador, his hatred towards materialism probably would have driven him to accelerate the car right into the ocean. If James Twitchell was sitting inside of it, he probably would have just left the car in a parking structure with the keys still inside. Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club and James Twitchell’s essay “The Allure of Luxury”both take negative against the concept and phenomenon of Western materialism, where society indulge on luxurious items to the extent of being the focus of life. In Fight Club, the idea of anti-materialism is taken to a great extent, with the book’s main character and Tyler focusing on destroying the materialistic society with violence to restore a more primitive way of living. However, in Twitchell’s piece, materialism is taken more moderately, describing how materialism has rapidly expanded throughout the Western nations, questioning the if it is beneficial or malicious. I believe that materialism does provide great benefits that allowed us human beings to advance as a society. However materialism introduces numerous complications that impact our society on a macroscale. Before comparing and contrasting my view of materialism, we will first explore Twitchell’s essay, then Fight Club to first better understand their stance and concept of materialism.

Wealth can be defined as a surplus. This surplus is distributed among a society. The distribution creates associations among the people of the society with respect to wealth. The Gospel of Wealth, written by Andrew Carnegie, describes two classes and the association of wealth between them. Adam Smith’s passage, Of the Natural Progress of Opulence, similarly, includes a reciprocal relationship of production between the town and country. Unlike the other essays, Marx’s, Communist Manifesto, debunks the separation of classes and urges equal distribution of wealth and, The Position of Poverty, Galbraith’s composition, emphasizes the importance of wealth in the public sector to abolish poverty. The essays all have a common structure of the distribution of wealth and include some insight on how to maintain the distribution or how to alter it so that it is more beneficial to society. Carnegie, Smith, Marx, and Galbraith explain the distribution of wealth and it’s affects on society.

The purpose of this assignment is to learn how to use my money wisely and also teach my children to use their money wisely also. The book I l chose to read is Smart Money Smart Kids by Dave Ramsey and his daughter Rachel Cruze. The five principles that I’ve learned out of this book is to teach your children young, about giving, saving, spend, budgeting, and debt.

Words in the English language can have numerous definitions and connotations; the term rich is no different than the rest. The first definition most people think of when they hear the word "rich" is having loads of money, which is exactly what Pete has in “The Rich Brother” by Tobias Wolff. This definition of rich and the title of the story lead many readers to assume that Pete is rich and his brother Donald is poor, but this is not necessarily the case. A person can also be rich because they supply a large amount of something that is needed, such as love or forgiveness. After further analysis and a different view of the definition of “rich,” it is discovered that Donald is in fact, the rich brother, not the monetarily rich Pete.

As Gladwell dives deeper into the success stories of notable figures, their stories all share a common theme that “their success was not just of their own making” (67) but was “a product of the world in which they grew up in.”(67) The special opportunities hidden in their lives allowed them to achieve the 10,000 hours needed to master their craft, one of Gladwell’s essential components for the recipe to success. Bill Gates, a distinguished figure in the software world serves as a prime example as a beneficiary of the hidden advantages received that launched him into a path to success. Bill Gates’ “sheer brilliance and ambition and guts” (50) were not the only reasons for his success. Gates’ success is owed to his opportunity to “do real-time programming as an eighth grader in 1968” (51), essentially setting him up to become successful, as others did not have the same opportunities as he did. If Bill Joy had not had “an extraordinary, early opportunity to learn programming”(51) and the Beatles had not had the opportunity to perform “for 270 nights on just over a year and a half” (50), would they have become just as successful? Through these cases, Gladwell makes it evident that the role of chance opportunities is significant and vital to the likelihood of one becoming successful.

If Tyler Durden from Fight Club was sitting inside $340,000 Lamborghini Aventador, his hatred towards materialism probably would have driven him to accelerate the car right into the ocean. If James Twitchell was sitting inside of it, he probably would have just left the car in a parking structure with the keys still inside. Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club and James Twitchell’s essay “The Allure of Luxury “both take negative against the concept and phenomenon of Western materialism, where society indulges on luxurious items to the extent of being the focus of life. In Fight Club, anti-materialism is extremely prominent with the narrator and Tyler are focused on destroying the materialistic society with violence to restore a more primitive way of living. However, Twitchell takes a more moderate stance on materialism has rapidly expanded throughout the Western nations, questioning if it is beneficial or malicious. I believe that materialism is a very misunderstood concept that I will describe later in the essay. Before comparing and contrasting my view of materialism, we will first explore Twitchell’s essay, then Fight Club to first better understand their stance their concept of materialism.

Imagine receiving one’s first car or an acceptance letter to the best school in the state, or even simply having a birthday party. Now, on the contrary, imagine a close family member has just passed away, school is incredibly stressful, and, because of all this, a mental breakdown is on the horizon. From the most saturated moments to the ones that are decidedly grayscale, friends should be at the side of anyone experiencing these moments - which is nearly everyone. What if all those confidants vanished? This is what happened to charlie after his only friend, Michael, committed suicide. Then, he met step siblings Sam and Patrick, who filled his life with colors he hadn’t even known existed. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, the author emphasizes the theme that, no matter how cliché it is, friendship can often be the one thing that teaches a person what to do to save themselves.

When you think of societal importance, we tend to think of how something will affect the social order of society. After reading all three of the books, it was challenging to choose just one of them to write about. Each one played its own part of significance from women’s rights, to economic tragedy, and exploring the universe. Considering all three of these books were well crafted, THE BIG SHORT by Michael Lewis reflects a template of our community. By showing what can happen if we continue to let the financial system run wild, then showing how it will impact us as an economy like it did in 2008. Two main factors that can be taken away from the reading are: Economy and the way of living.

In the book “All Money in the World” by Laura Vanderkam discusses about ways that people get and spend money in their lives and the relative between money and happiness. Each title, the author shows us different ways to use and earn money like getting, spending and sharing. But in chapter 3, “Rethink Retirement” of getting, Laura Vanderkam shows the creative way to approach retirement. There are three of the ways that the author suggests people can rethink and plan for retirement such as saving, making extra, and using time efficiently.

After watching the movie The Social Network, the first thing I did was to search for Mark Zuckerberg’s real life experiences to see which parts are facts and which are fictions. As a matter of fact, this Harvard genius that founded the world’s first social network was not as childish as the movie portrayed. At least he didn’t write programming for getting into elite Harvard “Final Clubs” or for retaliating his girlfriend. During Mark’s high school, Microsoft and AOL tried to purchase the music player that he built and also invited him to join them. However, Mark decided to enroll in Harvard for further education. From where I stand, although the movie is fictional, it can easily

In chapter sixteen, “Social Class and Inequality” the essays show different cases in which being rich, poor, smart or middle class can affect a person. In the writings of Angela Locke in “Born Poor and Smart” (338-339) Angela summarizes her life of what it was like growing up with a poor, yet smart mother. However, in “When Shelter Feels like a Prison” (374-376) Charmion Browne writes about being poor, and living in homeless shelters. Somethings in life, are no more than learning experiences, and only you can change it.

A modern book that holds a great deal of sentiment within it is Stephen Chbosky’s novel, The Perks of being a Wallflower. The novel is about a young boy, Charlie, who has some anxiety about beginning high school, especially after recently losing his friend, Michael, and he beings to write letters to an anonymous person. Charlie eventually becomes best friends with Sam and Patrick and goes through a lot of challenging situations that year. He deals with bullies, relationship problems, secrets, parties, drugs, abortion, and friendship. Throughout the novel, it is sensed that there may be something mentally troubling Charlie based on his strange actions. By the end of the novel a repressed memory of his is revealed to him and this causes him to have a mental breakdown and be hospitalized.