“I’m helpless like a rich man’s child”

I was reading an advice column in Money Magazine recently that contained tips for rich parents on how to raise their children so they do not turn out selfish, spoiled, and entitled. It called to mind a lyric from one of Bob Dylan’s songs “I’m helpless, like a rich man’s child“; and it made me wonder if it was more of an advantage or a disadvantage to be born into wealth and privilege.

Upon first consideration, being born into wealth generally guarantees access to superior health  care, education, and life opportunities. On the other hand offspring of wealthy parents tend to exhibit traits of greed, arrogance and superiority along with feelings of insecurity, lack of ambition, resilience and perseverance. A pretty toxic combination of traits that make it difficult for rich kids to grow into successful and well adjusted adults.

This was well portrayed in the movie Willie Wonka by the demanding child Veruca Salt who places constant demands on her parents and after she is sent down the garbage chute for being a “bad egg”, the Oompa Loompa factory workers appear and sing this little ditty of wisdom:

Who do you blame when your kid is a brat?
Pampered and spoiled like a Siamese cat
Blaming the kids is a lie and a shame
You know exactly who’s to blame

The mother and the father

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-da
If you’re not spoiled, then you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-do

The challenge of rich parents is in keeping the correct balance, so that they use their wealth to provide positive benefits to their children, without instilling the negative qualities that “spoil” them. Maybe that was the point Pablo Picasso meant when he wrote “I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.“

Those people who dream of winning the lottery and becoming fabulously wealthy don’t often consider these downsides of becoming rich:

1. End of Goals and ambitions because you can obtain whatever you want
2. Being judged unfairly by others because they believe your accomplishments are based on your money rather than your merit.
3. Increased feelings of guilt – because everybody has a sad story and believes you have the means to help them.
4. A complicated life – all that money requires an army of caretakers (homes, investments, properties, taxes, advisors, scams, frauds)
5. A questioning in the back of your mind if the closest people in your life really love you or if they are only pretending in order to gain access to your wealth.
6. The ill will money inspires in other people .
7. The competition for money and to exceed the wealth of those who have greater wealth than you.

Personally I feel that once you have acquired enough money to live comfortably, expending more of your life energy and effort to acquire more is just a waste of time and a waste of life. It is better to spend your life energy and effort on those things that money can’t buy. That is why I have saved and invested my money from an early age, so I can retire early and spend my final years pursuing the things that interest me rather than the things that pay.