I read a piece by Mandi Woodruff at Business Insider about 21 Ways Rich People Think Differently.

The first paragraph said, “World’s richest woman Gina Rinehart is enduring a media firestorm over an article in which she takes the ‘jealous’ middle class to task for ‘drinking, or smoking and socializing’ rather than working to earn their own fortune.”

I’m in the middle class. I don’t drink or smoke and I socialize only a little compared to the number of hours I work at what I enjoy, and I’m not jealous of the rich. I do not envy them either. What does that say about me?

Number ONE of the twenty-one ways rich people think differently says, “Average people think MONEY is the root of all evil. Rich people believe POVERTY is the root of all evil.”

I’m not RICH, and I don’t think money is the root of all evil and I also do not believe POVERTY is the root of all evil. Instead, I believe GREED is one of the causes of evil and POVERTY leads to suffering and some of those people living in poverty work long hours at jobs that pay little because some RICH person doesn’t offer a livable wage.

For example: the Walton family that continues to earn its wealth from the Wal-Mart stores. The NY Times says, “With most of Wal-Mart’s workers earning less than $19,000 a year, a number of community groups and lawmakers have recently teamed up with labor unions in mounting an intensive campaign aimed at prodding Wal-Mart into paying its 1.3 million employees higher wages.”

That NY Times report was in 2005, and little has changed at Wal-Mart. In fact, it may be worse. The CEO, Michael Duke, earned $35 million in 2010 while a new Walmart employee was paid $8.75 an hour for an annual salary of $13,650. Source: Jonathan Turley

In addition, the Walton family’s now holds as much wealth as the bottom 40 percent of Americans combined—about $90 billion.

Does that mean all RICH people are like the Waltons?  I don’t think so.  After all, two of the richest people in the world are planning to give all or most of their wealth away to worthy causes. I’m talking about Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet with a combined net worth of $105 billion.

Woodruff also mentions a book, How Rich People Think, written by Steve Siebold. Siebold makes some wild claims such as, “The average person has been brainwashed to believe rich people are lucky or dishonest.” Usually, I leave a link when I mention a book, but I do not think this book deserves a link.

However, it’s common sense—something Siebold and Rinehart seem to be missing—that everyone cannot be RICH.

Before I finished reading the Business Insider piece, I had the impression that Siebold believes everyone could be rich and famous if they had not been brainwashed into thinking the way us AVERAGE middle class folks think.

Here’s my reply to Siebold:  Everyone cannot be a winner.  Imagine a horse race where every horse wins and no one loses. There is always a horse that comes in last.

Imagine all the football, baseball, basketball and soccer games ending in ties because everyone is an incredible, perfect athlete.

Imagine every person on the Earth each worth millions or billions. Who would be left to mow the lawns, cook, wait tables, etc.?

Imagine seven billion people with the talent of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, or Whitney Houston.

Some of what Siebold says about how the rich think makes sense but I’m sure there are many AVERAGE people in the MIDDLE CLASS that do not behave as Gina Rinehart claims and for sure, have not been brainwashed as Siebold says.

Here’s a thought: I suspect that the RICH people that caused the 2007-08 global financial crises are an excellent example of the AVERAGE rich person, and if you want to know what EVIL is, we do not need the opinions of RICH people such as Gina Rinehart with a net worth of $18.9 billion or  Steve Siebold, who charges $7,501 to $15,000 to speak to you about his opinions. We may turn to the BIBLE to find out that answer:

“For the love of money is the root of all evil …” Source: King James Bible: 1 Timothy 6:10, or there are passages in the Bible that also says it has to do with being judgmental, to think what is good and evil such as Isaiah 5:20 – “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

Discover The Face in the Glass

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Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran, is the award winning author of The Concubine Saga.

His latest novel is Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to hate and kill Americans.

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