Huh? I run out of fingers and toes counting the libs I’ve run into that think exactly like that. Finding gold in the woods, cool finds metal detecting, make some money in the stock market, work you way up to a prosperous position, purchase your own house, etc... They all elicit responses that you shouldn’t be able to do that, or you should have to give some huge amount up, it’s not fair.
Regardless of how much work went into it. And you can read in them like a halogen lamp their envy, envy born of the knowledge that they’re either to much of a pansy to take a calculated risk, or to put some 10 hour days in during 100+ degree heat for a glitter of gold, a 100 year old dime, or to work towards a goal.
Not only are most of them pathetic losers, they manage to have the clout to screw up productive peoples lives too. Their motto should be “Misery Loves Company”...
I work in construction. Sometimes I have to work at some heights that get my legs shakey, but I suck it up and work through it. After a while the heights aren't quite so bad.
Sometimes I have to work in dirty or greasy, or wet disgusting environments. But the job has to get done, and someone has to do it. If its not me, maybe I have to sit on my bum not making anything, until a more suitable job comes around.
Other times its brutally cold and add on high winds. Or its 90 - 100 with high humidity, and maybe I'm on a roof with the sun beating down on me, and reflecting back up off the roof. Or its brutally hot, and I'm at a steel mill where you have to wear long sleaves and heavy clothing, just to protect you from touching hot surfaces.
There are times I have to work so physically hard, that my body ackes or I'm absolutely exhausted.
Sometimes, (like now) I have the ability to work 40 hours a week, and close to home. Other times I might have to work 6 or 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day for months on end. And have to drive 1-1/2 hours each way.
Thats just my JOB. I also do a lot of work on my own house. Not only saving $$ that others would have to pay to have somebody else do, but also putting what I believe is higher craftmanship than what I'd get hiring someone else.
All that allows me some pretty comfortable lifestyle choices. Some of those choices are buying older, less expensive vehicles, than my income would indicate that I can afford. Which allows me to invest more money, to either make more money, for a better lifestyle now, or put away for a more comfortable retirement later on.
By some standards I make good $$, by others not so much. But I'm proud of what I do, and I like what I do. I'm content with what I have, but wouldn't mind having better or more. But I don't begrudge those who have better or more than me, because every day I look at myself in the mirror and have no problem with who looks back. I dream and plan for future things, knowing that if and when they're accomplished, they are EARNED by me. Not by chance or at the cost to others.
And yet like you said, there are those who think I shouldn't have the things I have. Or that I "should give back" to the community. The problem I see with people who say others "should give back", giving back implies "taking something" before hand. The federal government spends over $7000 per person on average, on things like defense, education, and welfare. Meanwhile, my federal income taxes are over twice that. And yet there are those, like you mention, that would begrude me what I have.