&gt; Life contains a series of problems that need to be solved.<p>And MOST of the problems that MOST people face, have already been solved by the time someone is rich.  As in, seeking food, seeking shelter, seeking transportation, clothing, future security...<p>&gt; If you solve them adequately, then you are happy and fulfilled.<p>That&#x27;s not how my life works.  My daughter just had heart surgery.  It cost over $50,000.  My cut of that was about $2,000.  It saved her life.  You still think I&#x27;d rather be POOR today?<p>&gt; If you don&#x27;t solve them at all, then you are unhappy.<p>In my experience, there are two broad types of people - those who imagine how happy they&#x27;ll be after they accomplish their list of tasks (you), and those who are generally happy and find a way to put joy into the things they&#x27;re doing (me).  Since I&#x27;m generally happy, the gravy for me is getting to experience more out of this life and help other people.<p>&gt; How to earn the love of your family, friends, and community.<p>I don&#x27;t believe I do &quot;earn the love of my family, friends.&quot;  I think my family and friends love me unconditionally.<p>&gt; How to retain a sense of control over your destiny.<p>We&#x27;re talking about POOR today.  ACTUALLY POOR.  And ACTUALLY POOR people do not have nearly as much control over their destiny as you&#x27;re painting.<p>&gt; Fly a Mig? Christ man, talk about missing the point.<p>I specifically asked you to name TWO things a poor person can actually do today, that a rich person couldn&#x27;t do 20 years ago.  You&#x27;re full of criticism for my point of view, but I&#x27;ve given you a terribly simple challenge, and you have not risen to it.  If you want me to understand your point, then try STATING your point (via examples), rather than criticizing mine.<p>And to defend myself, I find that in debate it&#x27;s best to try to understand the most charitable rendition of the other person&#x27;s argument.  You&#x27;re breezing right past several of my points: &quot;Influence politics.  Invest in corporations, like SOLAR power, WIND power, NUCLEAR power. Fund start-ups.  Help stabilize and transform former Soviet Block countries.&quot;  Those are all, in how I view them, about helping people.  Most of my other ones were based on the fact that a rich person isn&#x27;t struggling to survive, and is instead seeking to squeeze as much out of this life as possible.  Carpe diem.  And evidence points to helping people, and having unique experiences, as being far more enjoyable than merely having possessions.  So, if I picture myself as rich 20 years ago, I come up with things (for that list) that a poor person could not do today, but that would make me happy.<p>If you want to attempt to convince me, then why don&#x27;t you try to list concrete examples of things a poor person could do today, that a rich person 20 years ago could not do.  Since that&#x27;s the actual topic at hand.<p>And fine, let&#x27;s take the most charitable form of your argument - Having The Internet Is Awesome.  Fine.  2 billion people have access to the Internet.  That means roughly 5 billion people do not.  Perhaps the agreement that you and I can make is that it would suck to be poor, among those 5 billion people today.