Why People Want to be Rich without Effort

Robert West | October 10, 2021

I interact with a lot of people. Recently I was asked, “why do people seem to want to be rich without putting in any effort?”

Most living things try to avoid pain because work is painful.

If there is a way to gain something with little to no effort it does not make sense to do more than required. 

This tendency is not always a negative.

Moving Boards Story

There is a story about a group of workers moving boards and all the workers grabbed a heavy board in each hand, another worker grabbed only one per trip.

The boss asked, "why is everyone else grabbing two?"  The worker replied, “maybe they are just too lazy to make two trips.”

Put another way, if you worked in a mailroom in the basement of a tall building would you take the elevator or the stairs to the 70th floor with your cart?

As with all things it can be taken to extremes.

What People Want and Something for Nothing

Older people want free medical care, younger people want free college, many veterans want disability checks even if they are not disabled, etc.

The “something for nothing” crowd does seem to be growing and it is not just riches.

People want fame without talent, reward without effort and riches without work. This is not new but it is childish and our society keeps extending the limits of what “child” means.

• You are a child at 13, 16 or 18 when it comes to film.
• A child until 21 when it comes to alcohol.
• A child until 26 when it comes to your parent's healthcare.
• In some parts of the country you are a child until 18 when it comes to rifles but a child until 21 when it comes to a pistol.
• Oddly enough, the "child" at 16 or 17 can join the military and operate a crew served weapon system but is still too young to buy a .22 pistol or drink a beer.

Perpetual childhood leads to perpetual demand.

Right now, there are 30-year-olds demanding cash from parents that have clothed, fed, housed and supported them for their entire lives with no end in sight.

Like infants demanding to be fed or changed they demand money for whatever they want.

That is a moral failing of the parents who never raised them, not the little kids that just happen to be 30 or older.

Robert West