Turd is a contrarian (as are most of the AF posters). This nature tends to drive us to inconsistency given our aversion for being associated with a herd.
Do you want to know who doesnt fear living in poverty? Ma boy Tyrone from da hood lives on equivalent of $100 a month and is already expecting his 7th child from mother number 6 (Yes one of those girls was lucky enough to get 2 babies from him) he says money is no obstacle for happiness
When a man is in a boat at sea and looks back at the shoreline, it may seem to him as though the shore is moving. But when he fixes his gaze closely on the boat, he realizes it is the boat that is moving.
Unless the boat was accelerating or decelerating that very instant, Galileo might disagree with your statement brah… I recommend that you revise your metaphor if possible to make it consistent with the theory of special relativity, particularly the invariance of the laws of motion in all inertial frames.
I love you guys 
Not sure what the distance to the shore has to do with it - Galileo’s principle is that there is no internal observation (e.g. fixing your gaze on the boat) which can distinguish between a boat that is moving uniformly and one that is at rest. Perhaps Turd is able to achieve that level of higher awareness by reaching a mental state that transcends beyonds the laws of physics. But his metaphor is still incompatible with special relativity.
I studied astrophysics… but it was like 15 years ago… I’m obviously foggy on all the stuff I used to know. Makes me sad 
I guess the fear of poverty is greater in a country with fewer social safety nets. Sky is the limit but the tradeoff is there is no floor. Someone going bankrupt because he gets sick is a foreign concept to me.
Ha ha, this is a pretty good post. I’ve always loved it when people point out stuff like this about myself – really useful to reflect on.
To be fair, I think you have the time line wrong. Turd has been on his new age bent for a while now (seems like several years?). So I think it may just be the frequency of posts about it decreased when he was on the #TrumpTrain. Regardless, the two do seem incongruent to me and I found it strange lol
This. It’s very easy to say “let go of all your attachments and you don’t have to fear poverty” when you don’t have any real sense of responsibility in life. When I was young and single I was pretty reckless - with jobs (always looking for the next big payday), investments (betting big on stocks I knew nothing about), and money in general because I knew I didn’t need much of it to support myself. Now that I have a wife, multiple kids, and multiple properties, “letting go of attachments” is not an option and would be a downright irresponsible and selfish mindset to have when many people depend on you for their livelihood.
nah bro, you’re missing the point. letting go of attachments is part of what enables you to optimize your performance. it doesn’t mean give all your shit away. it means do your work and don’t worry about any particular outcome. when you are pre-occupied with the outcome, your performance suffers. it also means: don’t let stupid shit (like possessions) occupy your mind or prevent you from seeing clearly what needs to be done. this is a pretty well-known idea in performance oriented areas like professional sports. not sure why it is so confusing.
Fantastic post. I grew up in grinding poverty. After 9/11, I was laid off and remained unemployed for nearly two years. It was nearly impossible to find work. I am very grateful for my experiences which allowed me to survive. That caused me to not fear poverty. As long as one has their health you can survive this. I ended up better than ever and was able to help others too. I don’t look forward to experiencing this again in my life, but if so, i know I’ll be fine. I wish schools taught people how to survive this as with the way the works is today, everyone will experience unemployment at some point.
+1 TF
I believe it was the Easterlin Paradox that first showed increases in wealth lead to less happiness. Plotinus was revered by alexander the great for this exact purpose. Alexander the great - a man who controlled practically anything he wanted - admired the minimalist approach of the platonism philosophy for it freed the onus of possessions to focus your life on your true calling.
^yea right, try that attitude with 3 screaming kids running around. pffft.
There were times in my life where we were poor and could barely afford clothes or food. Now I make decent money, but what I worry about is my girlfriend. Eventually she and I are going to get married, and have kids. My salary isn’t bad, but it’s certainly not good enough to support a family, and I don’t want them to experience what I had to go through growing up. Because of that, I’ve become very conservative with my money and save as much as possible.
i plan to get a wrestling mat for my sons. The screaming will only be tolerated after a takedown.
So basically poverty where nothing goes wrong. That’s the problem with all of this “let them eat cake” talk. When our 1 year old had a hip issue that required monthly >$500 visits to the hospital it definitely hurt the bottom line. I’d hate to be one of the many parents out there struggling to make ends meet and unable to afford high end treatments that could improve their kid’s outlook. A kid may not have hated growing up in grinding poverty, but if you think your parents enjoyed the process then it either wasn’t grinding poverty or you should ask them again.
It gets worse for the elderly. A sick 80 year old with no savings, no job, no kids, no siblings and a shrinking social network living off of the state is not an easy row to hoe and for young employed family men to postulate on how they’d handle it shows a lack of any self awareness.
It’s the definition of the silver spoon when someone like ACE who can arbitrarily pursue degrees to go with his current mode of interest can take a poverty vacation to monastery where his meals and housing are all certain and known before returning to his normal life to talk about poverty. That’s simple living, not poverty.
Yeah. There is a pretty striking difference between minimalism and poverty.