Are you Ri¢h?

Definition of ‘Rich’ Changes With Income

Excerpt:

I asked survey respondents to tell me how much money the people in their household would have to earn in a year for them to consider themselves rich. I evaluated answers that began at $10,000 and went through $4 million. In households in the lowest quartile of income, those earning less than $25,000 a year, people thought they needed about $293,000, on average, to consider themselves rich. And in households earning between $30,000 and $60,000 of annual income, the magic number was closer to $394,000. As people earn more, the multiplier on current income goes down, but the absolute number goes up in a somewhat linear fashion. In households with annual income between $60,001 and $120,000, the dream of becoming rich comes true at $426,000, on average; and, for the top 15 percent of incomes ($120,000 and up), the average number was $501,000.

Comment:  See earlier Richie Rich blog post. So much could be said about this from a Christian perspective. Off the top of my head:

• "When you have your health, you have everything. When you do not have your health, nothing else matters at all" (This is not a Christian perspective ... but a frequently quoted axiom. Actually one could be sick unto death and suffering and have true riches!)
• The Bible speaks of "true riches" (Luke 16)
• "Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful." (Matthew 13:22)
• Romans 2:4, "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?"
• Romans 11:33, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!"
• Ephesians 3:8, "o me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,"