Come to think of it, some of my buddies who made it out of the ghetto did the same thing, at first. It does take a while of being "secure" that the money isn't going to be taken away, before you start to think the way the author does. It's when you're surrounded by stuff and your life still feels empty. When you realize most the rappers were sellout pieces of garbage who, during the daytime socialize with the dentists they live next to if they can and rarely rap about how crappy a life surrounded with material wealth can also be.
Fortunately, knowing a couple of billionaires helps. I sat down with one and expressed my frustration in how I felt and how I had slowly but surely become someone I never really aspired be. It was at this point in my life it suddenly hit me. I'd known this guy for a while and had never seen him flaunt his money like I did (and he had a lot more of it than me). Then he told me that money for him is a tool. If you start using it to become a "consumer", you become consumed by it. He is not just free to do whatever, because in some way that is selfish too. Rather he uses his money to help others and makes the most positive changes in the world that he can. I know that's true because it's not just his money but he actually devoted, the much more precious commodity, of time, to his philanthropic efforts. Efforts he started when he had money like me, except he decided early on to give his away rather than spend it on himself.
It doesn't take a lot of money to be free. I live off less than a 1/3 of what I was before and have a few more in my family now (I was single before). I work with some amazing people and am trying to work on making things better for others on a daily basis. One non-profit I help out from time to time has been tackling the issue of homeless families (not substance abuse or psychiatric issue related, primarily economic issues), and not surprisingly, it's often about the parents' attitude towards money. It would be nice if they felt "secure" enough to understand that money won't buy happiness and were frugal by choice. It would really help if more people had the luxury to have the author's opinions, but thanks to culture/advertising or whatever, there's a large contingent of people who need to think about money differently but don't.
How did you acquire your wealth if you don't mind me asking?
Most of the money was thanks to entrepreneurial endeavors and code. I love building things. I still build, focus is just a bit different now.
If you can code, sure you might not be overrun with money, but at least you can still earn a decent living. At the end of the day, the most "successful" people I know do not measure their life in money stashed.
The billionaire I mentioned, showed me that I didn't necessarily need to become a billionaire to be successful. He happened to be a billionaire and is successful because he's satisfied with who he is and what he is doing. Still wakes up at 4am to change the world for the better as he sees things, with what's in his capacity to do.
When I was in NYC scrubbing toilets for a living, I shared my sandwich with someone else who needed it. That was positive impact I could make given my resources. When I got money, I just bought into the "good life" BS and became a consumer. I lived for nothing else but me. Turned into a certifiable asshole. It's hard to see it when you're in the midst of it.
Once I began to see that I was lying to myself saying, "I'll start being me once I've made $x". I could be someone I'm happy to be, now. Six months of planning, get rid of crap, and learning to live with less and asking myself a many times a day, "am I living up to someone I can be happy with" seemed to remedy the problem.
I've lost a good bit of $ to startups. Friends say maybe I'm afraid of making money, maybe they're right. But I sure as heck am happy being able to help. I hope I can get myself disciplined enough to the point when I get my next hit, I'll know whom beside me the money is going to.
Wish you the best. Screw the losses, you know what you've built and nobody can take that away from you. Do the best with what you have, to me that's success. And if luck should shine upon you, hope you're still successful afterwards because that's where it's easy to slip up and take it easy. (Sorry if I'm too preachy, obviously I feel strongly about the subject)
See figure 7: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServ...
It's also worth noting that he's writing this from the perspective of a far more materialistic and status-based society than the US.
The author did not grow up in poverty.
India's middle class can typically own property and afford servants, and live a life that is far more pleasant than is available to those in poverty in the US.
As an Indian I can tell you, To give you a true perspective almost every one rich in India apart from Ambanis and Tata(Kind of Rockfellers and Rothschilds of India) think they are from the middle class.
The super poor in India die out of hunger. Farmers commit suicide day in and out. The lower middle class barely gets any education and nearly die fighting for opportunity all their lives. The middle class is a little above that.
I can tell you stories of how difficult and crappy my child hood and teenage here was. And we were considered middle class.
The fact that you can start a company in India, and do it relatively comfortably to have your parents support your through, pay your college fees, have a car, and give you comfortable cozy home to live means you are easily among the rich.
In India middle class is an heavily overloaded terminology.
Read my link - 95% of Indians are poorer than the bottom 5% of Americans. Unless the author defines "middle class" as "top 2%", the fact that he grew up "middle class" is meaningless when comparing his lifestyle to an American one.
A stat to illustrate the point - 1.8% of India (circa 2009) owns a car, likely one that would be too dangerous to sell in the US. For comparison, 25% of American households below the poverty line own 2 cars and 75% own one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_p...
http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf
The bottom 50% of America you described, or even the bottom 5%, also does not go to bed hungry.
In most countries, especially poorer ones, you don't have to own a car to be in the middle class. Neither you have to pay for gas, car itself and parking/garage. You can realistically move by foot and/or mass transit.
Disclaimer: I think I'm in top 5% in my country, probably earn more than USA median and I never had a car.
I'd provide you with more statistics showing how wealthy poor Americans are (http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf), but clearly you aren't going to read any numbers.
So instead, go watch about 4 minutes of Delhi Belly (good movie, BTW, vastly better than typical Bollywood crap) which always confuses first world types:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrJS6R-FT-o
(Sorry, couldn't find the whole scene in one video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3dkCVXcAVg
That's life for middle class professionals. (Admittedly, a group of non-misfits would have filled the buckets.)
They don't drink your juice in the USA?
I will pick middle-class Indian over poor American every day, because: you won't get shot, you won't land in prison, you won't have to work three jobs for funny money, you'll have a real family and your children won't do drugs.
Instead you'll be raking in some respect.
3 middle class professionals (2 in that scene) all sharing a single grungy studio apartment. One of them is unable to wash his butt because none of them remembered to fill buckets of water during the 2-3 hours/day when the water worked.
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about when you suggest the poor American works 3 jobs. He probably works 0 (http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2011.pdf), unlike the Indian who is typically working mon-sat (mon-fri at a good IT company). Crime is a huge problem - just ask any woman of reasonable attractiveness.
As for having a "real family", the poor American can choose to marry a woman of good character before having children. He typically chooses not to.
Look, you can complain about "I can't afford a new iPhone poverty" and "omfg someone with a job makes 8x more than my welfare poverty" within the first world all you want. But don't project these intuitions onto India and other nations suffering from real poverty. It leads you to conclusions that are utterly ridiculous to anyone who knows what they are talking about.
I guess that mainland states' countryside is one thing and urban poverty in large cities is another thing. One more reason to take income rankings with a grain of salt. As a preedictor of lifestyle.
If you have any data at all suggesting the Indian middle class is remotely as wealthy as even poor Americans, feel free to cite it.