Idea of Poverty vs. Poverty of Ideas
Some People are so Poor, all they have is Money.
Bob Marley
In the above quote what late Jamaican singer, guitarist, songwriter, and most of all a humanist and an activist Bob Marley is trying to convey is that just having a lot of money or possessions does not guarantee a healthier, happier and fulfilled or satisfactory life.
In other words money doesn’t automatically make everything better or great or life meaningful.
In short, in the absence of creativity and imagination money can do nothing but make you more miserable. In other words if you are stupid (and most people with lot of money are often, if not always, stupid too), you can never even feel rich in spite of all the money that you have. You will also not be able to get real value at a reasonable price and there will be great risk that most of of your money will go down the drain without even getting a value. For instance you may spend a lot of money on the education of your children that might not help them in practical life or you might end up spending dollars on really useless or worthless things.
On the contrary, a wise person can get real value even without spending a penny. One example is that of people who homeschool their children or train them for family business without having the need to send them to any school.
Marley is also believed to have spent a significant portion of his time in spreading love and compassion for the economically disadvantaged and those suffering from racial and political violence. On an occasion when he was asked by a reporter in an interview : “Are you a rich man?” He responded: “What do you mean rich?”
When reporter explained: “Don’t you have a lot of possessions? And a lot of money in the bank?” Marley retorted: “Possessions make you rich? I don’t know that type of richness, my richness is life!”
Similarly French fashion designer and businesswoman Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel (19 August 1883–10 January 1971) is also believed to have said:
“There are people who have money and there are people who are rich”.
Problem is that conventionally or in a typical sense poverty is often defined as not having enough money (Token Value) to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter etc. According to some economists/sociologists poverty means not being able to afford the basic necessities of life which are otherwise considered normal in a society. In short, it is defined as a state or condition where an individual or community lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions considered essential for a minimum (typical) standard of living such as proper housing, clean water, healthy food, and medical attention etc.
This typical definition and the level of poverty is mostly determined by international financial institutions controlled by western/imperial powers).
A world Bank definition explains poverty in following words:
“Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time.
Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action — for the poor and the wealthy alike — a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.”
In absolute terms an individual is considered poor if they earn less than $2 a day.
But again there is a problem as this threshold is for non-western countries only. For western or rich countries, the poverty threshold is different. Thus there are two thresholds. These thresholds — typical of poverty lines among lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) and upper-middle-income countries (UMICs) — are currently at US$3.65 and US$6.85, respectively.
Thus it becomes evident that poverty (even in materialistic sense) can’t be defined in absolute terms but is a relative concept and one who is considered rich in India or Ethiopia might be considered poor in America or Germany.
Moreover, it is not just an economic problem (and can’t be defined in economic terms alone), but also a subjective idea or feeling and means different levels for different people. Thus it is not an objective concept but just a state of mind. Thus no economic measure can eradicate it. Moreover, since (or if) it is a basically a feeling of being poor, the solution could never be found in changing or improving the economic conditions but change in the mindset. If mindset doesn’t change the poverty will remain there for infinity. King Midas story best explains it. You can click the link below to read the full story:
https://www.greeka.com/greece-myths/king-midas/
From the above we can conclude that it is basically the dearth of ideas that makes one poor (both economically as well as psychologically) rather than dearth of financial resources. As a story analyst/critic puts it, “Midas soon realized that EVERYTHING he touched turned into F*CKING gold, not just stupid things like twigs, rocks, and flowers.” Or beautiful autumn leaves, stars, moonlight, rainbow etc.
Another lesson is that it is not the money (or lack of it) that is problem but materialism when large segments of a society avidly desire to consume goods for reasons that economists have traditionally defined as nonutilitarian (e.g. characterized by or aiming at beauty or ornament rather than utility.)
Here is another example of the dearth of ideas that shows that in the absence of creativity and imagination, one can end up spending (rather wasting) lot of resources and even then achieve nothing. On the other hand someone (having a powerful imagination) could achieve it without spending even a penny:
“The legend has it that during the height of the space race in the 1960s, NASA (America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration) scientists discovered that ink pens (used on earth) could not function in space. Thus they needed to figure out another way for the astronauts to write things down. So they spent years and millions of taxpayer dollars to develop a pen that could put ink to paper without gravity. But their crafty Soviet counterparts, so the story goes, simply handed their cosmonauts pencils.”
Although most people still bewilder if it is a fact of fiction, there is a clear message that thinking out of the box or the ability to think and do the things differently makes you richer than most of the “dumbs” with bags of (often stolen or ill gotten) money. When you don’t care anyomore what other people think and do and march to the beat of your own drum, you are really a rich person.
Marilyn Monroe was also famously quoted as saying: “I am generally miserable.”
The question that might arise in your mind will be:
“How was it possible for Marilyn to be miserable when she was a celebrated beauty, rich and famous, and not jumping up and down with joy? Another celebrity said: “I currently generate over $20k per month in recurring revenue, but here’s the thing… I’m unfulfilled. I’m not as happy as I thought I was going to be.” Is that all there is?”
One answer lies in the quote attributed to Christ Jesus:
“For what does a man gain if he has the world but loses his soul?”
This tragedy has been briefly but comprehensively explained by Clint Eastwood in following words:
“Do not look for luxury in watches or bracelets, do not look for luxury in forks or sails.
“Luxury is laughter and friends, luxury is rain on your face, luxury is hugs and kisses.
Don’t look for luxury in shops, don’t look for it in gifts, don’t look for it at parties, don’t look for it at events.
Luxury is being loved by people, luxury is being respected, luxury is having parents alive,
luxury is being able to play with your grandchildren, luxury is what money can’t buy.”
Thus money plays a nearly a negligible role in making life beautiful as well as meaningful.
Another best explanation can be found in the following quote of Rudyard Kipling:
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References:
i) https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/esic/overview/content/what_is_poverty.html
ii) https://ourworldindata.org/from-1-90-to-2-15-a-day-the-updated-international-poverty-line
iii) https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/developmenttalk/half-global-population-lives-less-us685-person-day
iv) https://www.firststage.org/media/jbhllq5g/threelittlebirds_enrichmentguide.pdf
v) https://thenorwichradical.com/2023/10/30/blonde-2022-bipolar-marilyn-monroe/
