Billionaires, Trump, Marriage, and Politics
First, I feel the need to address America's obsession with billionaires. I browse the free e-book lists at Amazon fairly recently, because I love reading my Kindle. I do have to laugh at the number of books with Billionaire in the title recently. Billionaire's weddings, billionaire's kids, billionaire's divorces. Here's the sad truth, there are only about 2,325 billionaires in the world (as of 2014). Their average age is 63. Of the male billionaires, 89% are married, 6% are divorced, 3% are single, and 2% are widowed. So if you want to marry an already married old man, then you might have a very slim chance of getting a billionaire. A better strategy would be marrying a millionaire and helping them reach billionaire status at the average age of their late forties. Not quite as romantic though.
All the dozens or hundreds of romances you can read with the just turned 30 year old self-made billionaire who has been single his whole life are probably not very realistic. Not to mention the personality conflicts that would be bound to crop up with all these "normal" women who fall into the lives of the "normal" billionaires. Just look at Trump if you want to see what your "normal" billionaire could turn into. Married 3 times, reality TV star, and certifiably insane.
Let's take a brief pause here to cry over the state of American politics (and media coverage of politics). The most talked about "republican" candidate right now is insulting war heroes, giving out personal cell phone numbers, and has been bankrupt 4 times. Yet, he still has "supporters"? What are they supporting? Are they supporting his "image" or the fact that they think he would actually be good for this country.
I suppose with the amount of debt we have, he could see our country through bankruptcy or debt renegotiation's with all his experience, but do we really want our country to have to go through that?
Back to romance novels and marriage now... Here's the deal, most arguments in marriage involve money. We've had a few low dollar money mistakes recently, which when compounded with the roof (which was out of our control) could make things stressful. But, you know what, having millions or billions wouldn't make us immune to those arguments, they would simply make them more stressful. Can you imagine losing $10 million to a Ponzi scheme? Or considering which charity to donate $2 million to this year? Those are huge decisions, even if you are a billionaire, and I imagine the stress would be more than the $350 car payment you are agonizing over at home.
The reality is, romance novels are designed to take us away from the real world. You can't let the image presented in those books change your view of the real world. In the real world, we don't have the money to do everything we want. But, if we live in the United States, we have the most opportunity. We can give generously, eat bountifully, and drive wherever we want. We can buy clothes frequently, eat out occasionally, and enjoy beautiful scenery. We live in one of the best countries int he world, so let's not focus on the image of the political candidates or romance novels, but let's do some work into the real world around us and figure out how to make that world a little better with some hard work and pro-active decisions.
As a newlywed friend told me recently, "this marriage thing kind of rocks." We don't have to have the picture perfect guy beside us, we just have to keep working at "this marriage thing" because if it doesn't rock today, it will tomorrow with a little hard work and tender loving care.
All the dozens or hundreds of romances you can read with the just turned 30 year old self-made billionaire who has been single his whole life are probably not very realistic. Not to mention the personality conflicts that would be bound to crop up with all these "normal" women who fall into the lives of the "normal" billionaires. Just look at Trump if you want to see what your "normal" billionaire could turn into. Married 3 times, reality TV star, and certifiably insane.
Let's take a brief pause here to cry over the state of American politics (and media coverage of politics). The most talked about "republican" candidate right now is insulting war heroes, giving out personal cell phone numbers, and has been bankrupt 4 times. Yet, he still has "supporters"? What are they supporting? Are they supporting his "image" or the fact that they think he would actually be good for this country.
I suppose with the amount of debt we have, he could see our country through bankruptcy or debt renegotiation's with all his experience, but do we really want our country to have to go through that?
Back to romance novels and marriage now... Here's the deal, most arguments in marriage involve money. We've had a few low dollar money mistakes recently, which when compounded with the roof (which was out of our control) could make things stressful. But, you know what, having millions or billions wouldn't make us immune to those arguments, they would simply make them more stressful. Can you imagine losing $10 million to a Ponzi scheme? Or considering which charity to donate $2 million to this year? Those are huge decisions, even if you are a billionaire, and I imagine the stress would be more than the $350 car payment you are agonizing over at home.
The reality is, romance novels are designed to take us away from the real world. You can't let the image presented in those books change your view of the real world. In the real world, we don't have the money to do everything we want. But, if we live in the United States, we have the most opportunity. We can give generously, eat bountifully, and drive wherever we want. We can buy clothes frequently, eat out occasionally, and enjoy beautiful scenery. We live in one of the best countries int he world, so let's not focus on the image of the political candidates or romance novels, but let's do some work into the real world around us and figure out how to make that world a little better with some hard work and pro-active decisions.
As a newlywed friend told me recently, "this marriage thing kind of rocks." We don't have to have the picture perfect guy beside us, we just have to keep working at "this marriage thing" because if it doesn't rock today, it will tomorrow with a little hard work and tender loving care.
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