with or without $$$

More ruminations, this time about wealth and poverty, which i've been thinking a lot about recently.
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It seems too obvious to even point out, but poor people and rich people have very different attitudes towards the world, very different values and expectations. Obvious -- but very rarely said, because it is so politically-incorrect. But i've been looking at my (mostly rich) friends, and thinking about the way they think, and i've been thinking how different they are from the people i know who are from poorer backgrounds, or who continue to remain poor.
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i wonder if these people realise how their income / wealth levels affect the way they see things. Possibly not. i'm recalling in particular a conversation i had with a friend last year, about the purpose of education. She came from a very well-to-do family -- something that i sometimes think she should disclose (see: 'full disclosure') especially when she makes pronouncements in public about government policy and our country's values etc -- and she said that education is about finding what you're passionate about, caring about knowledge, serving society, yada yada. i pointed out that for some people, education is a way out of poverty and into a better life. It's an aspirational thing. She found that shallow and wrong. Education should be for the love of learning, she said, and not for making one's way up in society. It's funny that she, of all people, should think this way -- seeing as one of the corporate social responsibility thingies that her own company engages in aims to help 3rd world villages out of poverty...
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i could go on, but should probably stop here before i say something really offensive ....
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