The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. I keep hearing this same canard parroted by all the talking heads on the cable news channels. YouTube is filled with charts and graphs telling you how sucky your life is because of some wealthy person you don’t even know somehow taking all the wealth.

They all say that the gap between the top income earners and the bottom keeps getting wider. But is it true? If you are at the bottom of the income food chain then I would ask, “What happened to your wealth?”

How Money Works

I think many people are under the misconception that there is a finite amount of dollars bills in the world. And if someone makes a dollar someone else has to lose a dollar. That’s not how money works.

The majority of money doesn’t exist in the world of reality. We have physical money that you carry in your wallet or purse, and we have electronic money. Money that is nothing more than ones and zeros on computer screens. If you buy something online you use electronic money to do it.

Banks create money out of thin air using a process called “fractional reserve  banking.” Facebook just created a whole new group of young billionaires. Did they take those billions from some other billionaire? Is there someone walking around America short a few billion dollars? No they created a whole planet of new customers who chose to give a portion of their income to Facebook.

Who Controls The Wealth of America?

Most people would answer that the few at the top control all the wealth in the world. How is that possible? How did the people at the top acquire all that wealth? Why are they the chosen few?

If there is only so much money in the world then they had to take it from someone else didn’t they? But what if they didn’t? What if they just created more money?

According to the US Debt Clock small business assets total $8.8 trillion dollars, evil corporations have assets of $20.5 trillion dollars and American household assets are $84 trillion dollars.

Are you telling me that the assets of the American people are almost four times bigger than all the corporations and small businesses in America combined? That’s exactly what I’m saying. This means that the average American citizen has over $357,000 in assets.

If I Have All This Wealth How Come I’m Broke?

Most likely you’re broke because you don’t understand how to make money work for you. If you are living paycheck-to-paycheck and living the best possible life you can afford, based on your income, you are going to get broker by the day.

The rich look at money in a whole different way. Money won’t make your life better it will just make your life easier.

Contrary to popular belief the rich don’t spend money on houses, yachts, cars or jewelry. All these material things have costs attached to them that the rich don’t want and will make them poorer. You don’t get rich in the first place by being wasteful with money.

You on the other hand, think nothing of maxing out credit cards, putting off the rent or power bill from time to time to get what? — Material crap or to live a lifestyle you can’t maintain. Any bill you can retire is the same as getting a raise in pay. Why not keep right on paying that same bill but pay it to yourself. And you will soon find your days of living paycheck-to-paycheck will be a thing of the past.

I Was Doing Fine Till I Lost My Job

OK, you lost your job. Tell me about your savings? Non-existent right? While you were doing fine did you save ten percent of your “doing fine” income? Did you retire debt? Did you save six months income since no job on earth is guaranteed forever?

I’m guessing the answer to all those is a “no.” So now you expect someone who has done all those things to come along and take the pain away and bail you out.

Some Final Thoughts

I know that life is very unfair to some people. They find themselves in bad situations though no fault of their own. Those are the people that need and deserve the most help.

But if you chose to live the “grasshopper” lifestyle while your neighbor saves and sacrifices, forgive me if I don’t reach for the hankie while you tell me your story.

You lost your wealth. No one took it from you. You made poor decisions and poor decisions have consequences. However, it’s never too late to narrow that income gap.

If you are willing to live for a short period of time like most people won’t; you can live the rest of your life like most people can’t. Change your lifestyle and you can change your life.

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