Do you feel guilty about your wealth and possessions when so many in the world are living in poverty?

Answer 1

Guilt is a fairly useless emotion--the important this is to move beyond any feelings of guilt or privilege to make sure that you engage in bettering the world and helping those around you. As JFK said, "“for of those to whom much is given, much is required”.

Answer 2

No of course not. What is inequality anyway? Sure a bushman of the Kalahari does not have a nice house in surburbia with running water but then he does not have a mortgage. Does he wake up everyday and curse his life? Plus inequality exists everywhere and wealth in relative. A herder in Darfur may have ten time the cattle of his neighbour. Should he feel guilty? Or should that person with less cattle feel guilty that he has not lost his family to the hands of the Janjaweed ilke the other person did?

At the end of the day, most humans desire the best for themselves, you should not feel guilty about at acquiring that which makes you happy as long as you do it with a binding set of morals and in good faith.

Answer 3

I live in a home we are still making payments on, I don't have a job. I'm suffering from acute eczema. My hubby has not been paid in months. I'm down to my last 200 bucks till he gets paid a pittance. So no, I can't say I feel guilty but I don't resent anyone their wealth and possessions either. That's just the way things are at the moment.
Peace.

Answer 4

no. it's the same thing as "survivor's guilt", things just work out that way sometimes. it's rough that there are a lot of poor people all over the world, but even if I gave away everything I have, I may be able to help 6 people, out of the 300 million living in poverty. and all that would do is "give them a fish"; there's no way to know if it would be more than a temporary solution. There's a chance they'd squander everything I gave them, so they're back to being poor, and now I'm poor because I gave everything away to help them.
Like I always say,"No matter how bad things get, they can't get any better and they can't get any worse, because that's the way things f*cking are and you'd better get used to it Nancy."

Answer 5

Well, I'm not wealthy and by western standards I'm pretty much the lower class. I think you shouldn't feel guilty about your wealth if you acquired it legally and without doing wrong to anyone in the process. Anyway, you can always give money to charity and take an active role in helping those less fortunate than you.

Answer 6

Frankly speaking I really feel guilty as well as sad for them as I myself have experienced this thing. I am not boasting about myself but it's really the truth. Whenever you travel by your car along some undeveloped area you will see them staring at you because they also want to live their life to the fullest. They have also got the same rights as ours as mentioned in the constitution of India but still there remains some difference or the other. If we show a bit of sympathy towards them or talk to them in a polite way then they feel that they have achieved it all. Do you know that we being far better then them are still not satisfied and our needs increases day by day but they in their small circle of world enjoy their life and become happy by just getting the simple things thrown away by us.

Answer 7

Yes, I sure do. I just moved into a brand new house this week and it makes me feel really guilty...but obviously not guilty enough because I'm not selling up to give it to charity. Sorry to be selfish but I'm just being honest.

Answer 8

Yes. That's why I became a communist many years ago. Problem is individualism and capitalism are the dominant ideologies of western society and unless that changes we will always live in an unfair and unequal world.

Answer 9

No. I work my *** off getting my wealth and possessions. The rest of the world can trade with me if they have something I want.

Answer 10

I don't really feel guilty; I really hate it, though and will immediately do what I can to help. What I can stand though, is spoiled kids who get 3 meals a day, who whine because they can't get a pair of $200 shoes.