Poll: Preferable: To be rich or to be your perfect physical ideal?

Wow...now THAT is an old poll. I don't even remember when I wrote it. :)

I'm ashamed to say I voted for rich. Because my fear about money and being broke puts me through way more hell than my angst about my looks and my health.

And I certainly am not happy the way I am.

Why are you ashamed of wanting to be rich? To paraphrase Tevyeh, it is no great honor to be rich but it no shame either. There are clear advantages of having lots of money. Who hasn't dreamed of what they'd do if they were rich? It is how I voted.

Now if physical ideal included being healthy then it would be a tougher choice.

Well I *do* include health in the physical ideal. Because your physical ideal would never be to be pretty but cancerous, you know?

And I think I'm ashamed of the wanting to be rich because I know I'm already spoiled rotten and "rich" compared to people of varying degrees less fortunate than I am. It feels so selfish to find myself wanting more.� Because it's just impossible for everyone to be rich, so my even wishing to be so is like saying I want another unknown person (or many people, since it's never 1 to 1) to be poor.

It's a conflict between my wanting to feel secure and my wanting to feel like a good person.

Wealth isn't a zero sum game. Your being rich doesn't make someone else poor. If it comes down to something like winning the lottery, yes everyone else loses if you win but you aren't really taking anything from them but the dollar they willingly bet.

Anyway now I'm earwormed with "If I were a rich man" from Fiddler on the Roof.

See, and part of me feels that logic like that is just rationalizing...that since I wouldn't be directly responsible for someone else's poverty that I therefore shouldn't feel at all bad for the inequity. (Is that the right word?)

The other part of me agrees. It's a really hard battle inside. Which just ends up manifesting as guilt for even wanting wealth. :)� Like...if I chose poverty I wouldn't have that disagreement in my own heart and mind and therefore it's more virtuous.

I know...I'm not claiming my neuroses make perfect sense. I'm just explaining how they work. :)

Here are always ways to help others in poverty even when you are in poverty yourself, as long as we remain free in as we are (more or less) now in this country. Being rich, fair, just, and compassionate (the latter three of which many of the people we call rich are not!) affluence becomes only one more tool in all of our personal arsenal to fight poverty and it's results.

This assume that your peronal affluence was not amassed on the backs of others' poverty.

I voted for rich too. The only thing I don't like about my own looks is my weight, and with riches, I would have the time and money to exercise, and I could hire someone to cook me delicious, macrobiotic meals or something.

I would love to be rich. Ten years ago, I would never have said or thought such a thing... I've had an issue with rich people my whole life. Funny how things change when you are angsting over mortgages and hated day jobs.

Yeah that's a part of why I choose rich. Because if I was rich it's no guarantee that I could make myself look and feel better, but it's at least a possibility.

But if I was my physical ideal...I still don't think there'd be a snowball's chance in hell that it would end up being a way I could get financial security. :)

So in my eyes the rich road is the only way I could maybe have both in the end.� Greedy bitch I am. :)

I'm materialistic, not narcissistic.

I wish I wasn't either "istic" but I fear I am both. :)

I don't even know what my physical idea for myself would be. Maybe lose a little weight, have better eyesight, erm, I don't know what else.

I can, however, tell you lots of things I would happily buy if I had money. It's not a matter of needing money to be happy, not at all, but having some would make things like moving to Maine eaiser, and having lots would be useful, and I could donate lots of it and help others too.

No question, and I see no reason to be ashamed of it. Being rich frees you up to be really useful... and if I had more money it would be easier to stay healthier, which is what my physical ideal consists of.

of course.
I'm fine with how I look. *shrugs*
I could stand to lose a little weight, and live healthier... but... I'd very likely do both of those if I didn't have to worry about money every minute of every day.
:P

I voted for physical but I interpreted it as being healthy and feel at ease with/in my body. The concept of beauty didn't cross my mind at all... Lots of money wouldn't be bad either though - I could keep on (folk)-traveling for a extended period of time and blog it. That would be fun.

But - if I had lots of money - the first time I'd do would be to buy frff/plane tickets for beth has a kitten! and Jon so that they could enjoy the happiest place on earth this summer. Word.

I think what I intended the second option to be was both beauty AND health or whatever you consider to be a physical ideal. That's up to each person, ya know? My physical ideal would be to be beautiful, thin, and get rid of my medical issues. It's all a package.

Sounds totally reasonable.

get rid of my medical issues

Yep. I don't really have a lot of these issues at all but can I have 2 new corneas please?

Yeah, in that case I'd go for physical fitness, more energy, and no need for continuous medication. I'm taking meds for several chronic conditions, so eliminating those conditions would be darn close to heaven.

i voted for physical ideal too.

i'm poor. i'm not destitute, but i do live beyond my means. i make enough money to live but not enough to keep any savings, or even to pay all the bills for one given month, at least, not usually.� but you know what? money doesn't make me happy, and never has. would it be nice to be rid of my debt and put money away? yes. i'll be able to do that soon enough.

but my phisical ideal, this is something that has kept me miserable since puberty.� i went from being the child model to the chubbiest, most awkward member of my family. It got worse and worse as years went on.� All through high school i had a burning jealousy for those girls with tanned, even-colored skin and thin, toned legs where you couldn't see any hair follicles (you can see every one on my legs), hair that didn't have frizzy flyaways and faces blemished in random spots by acne.� it didn't stop there - college was the same way, although i admittedly became more comfortable with myself once arriving there.

as far as materialistic vs narcissistic? i'm definately narcissistic. so. i went with physcial ideal. it's something i'm working on <a href="/mod/discuss/bounce.php?url=http://www.livejournal.com/~sheryl_and_john/">right now</a>.

Seriously, "rich" is relative, and a state of mind. It is the rare person who thinks they have enough money to be "secure", whether they have $5 or $500,000 at their disposal.

That makes the "so i could help other people" part of the rich option completely bogus. You help other people with what you have now, not putting it off until you're "more financially stable", because if you don't feel financially capable of sharing now you may never achieve that mindset. Studies indicate that people with incomes under $25,000 (US) give far more of their income, proportionately, to charity than the "wealthy" (ie, $250,000/yr and up). Is that because they have more disposable income? Hardly. It's just that they recognize the need around them, and know that even a donation that someone in a higher tax bracket might consider pathetically small will help those in truly dire straits.

And who do you find bitching loudest about taxes, or in salary arbitration because the wage-and-benefits package they've been offered simply isn't enough for them to stop worrying about money? Those whom ordinary mortals consider "rich", of course.

Hear, hear.

I picked the physical, not because I want to be some great beauty (because that has it's own host of problems) but because I have no self control in terms of what I eat and how I behave, and money can't buy that for me.

With money, I would just end up feeling bad for buying frivolous things (because that's what you do when you have lots of money, right? Buy things you want but don't need.)

To feel comfortable in my body and secure in my movements, to feel capable of doing all of the things I would love to do were I fit enough to do them, that would just be heaven. If I could get some self-control, I could get to my physical ideal. But alas.

i'm content, but i voted for money.

because well, yah. it'd be nice to be rich.

I don't want either or. I'd like to be healthy and financially secure.

Well of course most of us would want that! The point of this being a hypothetical question is you can't have it all! :)

Wait a minute.� The point of this being a hypothetical question is that you can.� Hypothetically.� I think I just made sense.

But I can have both. It just depends to what extreme. I'm fairly financially secure right now, I'm not what I would consider "rich", but I don't want for much financially either.

I'm pretty fit, but I'd like to get to my physical ideal soon though.

I voted rich cause I've been poor all my life. Several of you fruheads know what I look like, I dont really need to change anything except my poverty status. selfish I am, but I'd buy a huuuuuuge property and build a matching house and use it as a place for people who are needy to get some help getting back on their feet

I voted that I'd like to be where I am now. I know I tend to focus on my financial reality and my physical reality and make myself believe that I'd just be happy if they were better. I'm working really hard not to do that, but to find happiness with my current reality. Otherwise, I think it's too easy to defer my happiness, because really, what is my ideal--of either of these? In real life, how do I decide that I've reached them?
Also, I think many of us have realized that even if we lose a bunch of weight or make a bunch of money, we're still stuck with ourselves, and our problems don't go away. Not that it isn't nice to have extra money or to be in good shape. I just think we tend to pile too many expectations, to pin to much hope to these things rather than dealing with our current selves.
In any case, the question gave me much fodder for fantasy.

Yes, I voted for where I am now, I really don't care about my physical appearance unless there was something that was detrimental to my health as well as appearance. I have also always been one that would rather earn a reasonable keep than wake up and find that I am the next Bill Gates, so... yeah, that's my stance