Is it? I have friends who have very little money. Ok, they live safely, but not comfortably by any stretch. They value their leisure and live a good life.
I'm also friends with people who became very rich. In their own ways, they all continue working hard.
> Ok, they live safely, but not comfortably by any stretch.
> They value their leisure and live a good life.
There's an inherent contradiction here unless you believe you can live a 'good life' (which I would expect to be free from excessive discomfort?) while also living 'not comfortably by any stretch'.
You also have to consider what 'safely' means here. Sure, it means walls and a door so that you don't freeze to death or get eaten by dingoes or (insert local hazard here), but beyond the immediate, it also means having resources to obtain medical aid if required, ensure food supply and other necessities even in the face of unforeseen circumstances, etc.
It's possible to 'live a good life' with no resources while everything goes in your favour but it rapidly gets awful if that changes.
On your second point, I'd imagine that the people who became very rich did so because they're constitutionally unable to just relax and coast.
I don't see the "inherent contradiction". Discomfort, as long as it's chosen and not imposed, is not much of a problem.
Yes, wrt safety it's hazy. Eastern Europe, so it's reasonably safe, and also we don't take safety as seriously as the Westerners. Our medical aid is all right. They have enough money to eat, but you'd be surprised how cheap and basic a diet can be.
> It's possible to 'live a good life' with no resources while everything goes in your favour but it rapidly gets awful if that changes.
Oh. It's possible to suffer even with infinite resources. Things can go horribly wrong. Health problems. Death. Other kinds of trauma.
> On your second point, I'd imagine that the people who became very rich did so because they're constitutionally unable to just relax and coast.
Yes, though some are learning and have improved a lot :)
I don't remember that particular observation being in the book since it's very much about the upper class, but that book is amazing. I used to keep an rss feed of new project gutenberg books and when that popped up I read it just based on the name and was amazed how pertinent it was a hundred years later. I haven't read anything else by him, but that one is absolutely worth it. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/833
Also since it was written when the vestiages of european feudal system still had some tiny amount of power, some of the observations about lords who owned massive estates but had no money and would refuse to take on any work, considering it "beneath them" while they starved was fascinating. It's both of it's time and timeless
