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You’ll Be Poor Forever Until You Realize This
There are no big moments; there’s only this one
I’ll be poor forever
That’s what a friend of mine says, over and over again, repeating it like a mantra, like something he wants to believe.
He’s not poor now.
At least, not by the grim metrics of global human existence. If we put all the money in a great big pile and split it up eight billion ways, both he and I would lose a lot. From the position some people are in — from the position most people are in — we are both extravagantly rich.
But that’s not how he sees it.
It’s not how he’s told to see it.
Own a house, or enjoy being poor
It’s how I know he’s awake. Another grim text complaining about the way the world is organised. He lives in Western Canada, and I live in France, so when he wakes up with a head full of sorrow, I’m coming toward the end of my work day.
It doesn’t happen every day, but there’s seldom a week that goes by when it doesn’t.
He’s become obsessed.
He’s not alone.
The entire anglosphere is marching to this same beat. The prices keep going up, and the…
