Honestly, I doubt that. Some part of your brain must realize the suffering that enables your cushy lifestyle; some shred of remaining conscience must look at yourself with pity.
There are endless rationalisations to choose from, endless distractions to buy - but actual contentment will only grow further away. All of history's wisest people agree on this; many quotes from Buddha and Jesus relate to exactly this point.
Maybe you've already sold your conscience when becoming part of the 1%, so you don't need more/difference excuses when reaching the next levels.
Most people in my country's 1% have already made the choices that allow them to accumulate with no end. They're already placed in a strong enough bubble that they don't see the results of their actions, e.g if their investments/lobbying hurts the poor (e.g all law makers are from the same class, media sources are so personalized so you don't share the same experience with the rest of society, they starts presenting the poor as "lazy, dumb, evil zombies", your Uber won't let you cross anyone from below levels or make sure you avoid certain districts, etc).
There's a French word for that: l'entre-soi -- people choosing to live in their microcosm (social, political, etc.) avoiding contact with those who are not part of it.
There's very little that scares people more than losing what they have. That fear rationalize many things. "I deserve my wealth" "other people are lazy" "I could save some kids somewhere but what difference would it makes". That is true for every level of wealth, it's the same if you are bezos or if you are a moderately successful in a poor village. But inequalities only get worse with time and it seems that this fear makes the trend impossible to stop. What happens next?
This kind of hyperbole is just virtue signalling. You want to tell us what a great person you are because clearly you think about all this and you've fixed it by not exploiting anyone else.
In your rush to excoriate someone for being a part of the 1%, you've forgotten that you're easily in the 1% of people living on earth and we're all connected thanks to global trade. All the things you've said apply equally to you. You can't tell us with certainty about the living conditions of everyone who made your shoes, your phone or your means of transport.
Were Buddha and Jesus virtue signalling too, or is there a chance that they were actually on to something? A concept worth repeating for thousands of years, an idea that points to a deep and non-obvious and hugely important truth.
I'm not excoriating anyone. Pointing out that the generationally rich need to ignore a vast amount of inequality to feel good about fucking around in their megayachts shouldn't be this controversial.
As for the wild assumptions about my shoes, and my transport; did I touch a nerve? What a bizarre line of attack. Why would owning a phone disqualify me from having an opinion on the absurd levels of inequality which support the lifestyles of the generationally .1%?
They weren't virtue signalling. But to the best of my knowledge, Buddha and Jesus didn't use smartphones made in China, shoes from Vietnam, shirts from Bangladesh or cars from Mexico. Which you do.
> Why would owning a phone disqualify me from having an opinion on the absurd levels of inequality which support the lifestyles of the generationally .1%?
Lmao, you are the generationally wealthy global 1%. That's my point! You just don't realise it because you only compare yourself to the people around you and tell yourself "well, I'm doing ok, better than some, not as good as others" without realising how privileged you are. Everything you were saying about the other commenter from your high horse applies equally to you, it's just that you don't realise it.
And any talk of "well, let's keep the discussion to my country alone" only works in a fantasy land where global trade doesn't exist. You enjoy your high standard of living thanks to the labourers working in sweat shops making your inexpensive clothes.
By all means talk about the plight of workers. Just mind your pronouns though. Talk about us and what we need to do instead of villainizing some other group, like we have no culpability in this.
> did I touch a nerve?
Not really, I'm lucky to be top 10% of the country I live in. But the world as a whole? Easily 1%. The difference between us is that I don't blind myself to the rest of the world, and condescend to others on how they should comport themselves.
> Buddha and Jesus didn't use smartphones made in China, shoes from Vietnam, shirts from Bangladesh or cars from Mexico. Which you do.
The semi-ironic thing about this is that it's actually more expensive (in the vast majority of cases) to get shoes or shirts made in the US or a Western European country than in Bangladesh or Vietnam.
In fact, amongst some of the more well off members of my society, the fashionable thing to do is get locally made shirts which cost easily 3-10X what cheaper shirts made by exploited foreign workers cost.
> Buddha and Jesus didn't use smartphones made in China, shoes from Vietnam, shirts from Bangladesh or cars from Mexico. Which you do.
> Lmao, you are the generationally wealthy global 1%.
> you only compare yourself to the people around you
> Everything you were saying about the other commenter from your high horse applies equally to you
You keep making these assumptions about me. Could you stop? It's extremely disingenuous.
Nothing I have said denies global trade, or exploitation in the supply chain of consumer goods.
> mind your pronouns though. Talk about us and what we need to do instead of villainizing some other group, like we have no culpability in this.
Friendo, the .1% are fucking us, in myriad ways. One of their most effective strategies is getting people to victim blame themselves; and I think you've taken the bait.
> Some part of your brain must realize the suffering that enables your cushy lifestyle; some shred of remaining conscience must look at yourself with pity.
You're in the 1% globally. Did any part of your brain realise anything? What did he shreds of your remaining conscience tell you?
Again with the wild assumptions about my economic status, as if that discounts anything I might say.
Really, you don't get to discount people's views on inequality and the hoarding of wealth by ranking them globally.
'Specially when you just make up the rank without knowing the first thing about someone.
Even so - why would you think there isn't a huge difference in psychology between someone earning whatever you're assuming I earn, and someone with vast generational wealth? The science is pretty clear on that one.
“When I was poor and complained about inequality they said I was bitter; now that I'm rich and I complain about inequality they say I'm a hypocrite. I'm beginning to think they just don't want to talk about inequality.” ― Russell Brand
There are endless rationalisations to choose from, endless distractions to buy - but actual contentment will only grow further away. All of history's wisest people agree on this; many quotes from Buddha and Jesus relate to exactly this point.