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Untrickled by Michelle Teheux's avatar

Consider this: For one month, put yourself on a budget. Spend nothing but what the median family in your state spends on food. Buy no clothing or home decor. Don’t eat out or perhaps enjoy one inexpensive restaurant meal at a middle class restaurant. Don’t buy anything that’s not a necessity. It would be even better if you rented an inexpensive house or apartment for a month and brought with you only what you’d have if you were making the median wage. Even to plan this exercise would be enlightening. You could also bring your family to stay with me for a few days! We’d eat 100 percent homemade food. You and your wife would share the double bed in the guest room. If your kids come, there’s a futon in my office and I’ll borrow an air mattress. You guys can help me bake bread, shop for groceries, clean the pond and mow the yard. You can mix and record music in the attic studio. You can learn how working class people enjoy themselves— we will serve good coffee or mediocre wine by the pond or in the treehouse. I’m not joking. The offer is open! I think we would both learn a lot from this exercise.

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Liba's avatar

I’m sorry, I’m very disappointed in this article. Even to contemplate the need to justify being wealthy is a bourgeois thought experiment. I live in Israel in a very poor neighborhood (my family is not poor, but it’s a long story about how we ended up here). People are struggling and you’re feeling uncomfortable about money?

You are a Jew. Wealth is not a curse according to your tradition. It is a blessing. Just use it in the right way , and enjoy . You already give 20%. That is proper; just make sure you give plenty to Jewish causes, including to Israel. You wrote somewhere else that you send your kids to Jewish school—-excellent use of resources. Just make sure they are getting a good Jewish education. Do not live ostentatiously on the outside. It’s not cheap to live a Jewish life. Kosher food is more expensive. Jewish holidays are expensive. Just be sure you help your Jewish neighbors celebrate on the level you celebrate. And if your immediate neighbors don’t need it, so go further afield.

Everyone has a certain luck. You probably weren’t born a great basketball player (I’m guessing). Enjoy the luck that you were born into, use your talents, and be generous.That’s it. Very simple. You don’t have to apologize, just like Michael Jordon doesn’t have to apologize.

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