To think that if you’re in a position of choice, you should always choose affluence?

I don't agree. Lots of people choose to dedicate their lives to public service when they could potentially pursue more lucrative careers. I don't think they are wrong to do so. Nor do I think that people are wrong for making different choices.

It all comes down to what you value most. For some, that is money, or the ease/freedom/comfort that money brings. For others, it might be the psychological rewards that come from making a positive difference to others, or the life satisfaction that comes from doing work that they love. Or something else altogether.

As long as you aren't doing anything illegal or unethical, or expecting others to subsidise your choices, I don't think either option is inherently right or wrong. There are multiple ways to live.

you are being incredibly vague and not offering any context.

on the face of it, of course people would ideally choose affluence rather than poverty. But there’s a whole world of different reasons why people make choices that appear illogical.

have you asked the people you are referring to why they didn’t choose affluence? What reason did they give?

In which case I’d agree that some people feel that way. I don’t think it’s as simple as them just not “choosing” comfort though. It’s more emotional than that

Well if it was as simple as being financially rich or financially poor I would be financially rich

money buys you opportunities and comfort

It can’t

So give a hypothetical example of when someone may have chosen poverty over affluence despite other things being equal?

it sounds way too simplistic.

When do you really have that choice?

Or do you mean someone giving up their well paid career to become a struggling artist, or a doing charity work for next to nothing?

Can't see many investment bankers deciding to work in an Amazon warehouse because it's fun to struggle to pay the bills.

If people go for shit jobs when they have a choice, it's because they are or close to have a complete burnout and their mental health is worth everything, and an easy life is worth it. If it's to genuinely struggle?

Fair enough. I choose affluence

When do I get my money and stuff?

I partially agree. I’m going to ask my kids to take into account salary when they’re thinking about their career but as part of a wider picture- there are many things that make us happy and our lifestyle is just one of them. I actually believe your real wealth is your health and your free time so I wouldn’t sacrifice my mental health and all my free time to work a high stress 6-figure salary job, but would possibly make more financially savvy decisions in different situations.

When do people have a choice?And I disagree.

Do you have an example?

Because I think most people choose what they believe will give security and comfort, but that doesn’t necessarily look the same for everyone. People have different priorities, and comfort is subjective.

Who on earth is choosing poverty over affluence? Can you give an actually example?

There’s a whole rich middle ground between affluence and struggle though. I would choose that middle ground over affluence.

One of my best friends nearly died three weeks ago from a very serious heart attack. Her arteries are fine, it turns out. But the level of stress she has been living with is not.

While poverty is stressful, the lifestyle needs to be wealthy is also very stressful. I would never choose that. Modest living and low stress seems by far better to me.

I think most people would choose affluence if it were always a choice, sadly it very often isn't.

Hi ‘three capitalised words as a user name’, can you give us some examples of this? You’re being very vague, and it’s unusual that you know so many people that have done this you’ve postulated a theory about it. It might help us lesser mortals if you could give concrete example of where you know this has happened so we don’t don't have to use our limited imagine to help you out with your quandary.

Depends what you mean by affluence. Or, perhaps, what affluence means to you.

If the choice is between a generous more-than-enough affluence, and private jet affluence, then, personally, I would choose the less affluent option. I don’t actually want to have so much that I need to worry about personal security and gold-diggers.

if the choice is between poverty or belt-tightening not-quite-enough and more-than-enough affluence, then, yes, I would choose affluence.

And if the choice was affluence at the cost of personal integrity, then I would choose poverty. My dad has told me how he had been headhunted by a company that dealt in the international arms trade. He weighed it up: massive salary v personal ethics. It didn’t take him long to decide. We continued in our very ordinary lives entirely oblivious to the massive efforts our parents went to to provide for us.

Choosing affluence is fine as long as it doesn’t compromise your peace or your sanity. I wouldn’t take a higher paid job if it left me stressed and impacted my time with my family.

So what you’re saying is that if you can have peace, ethics, health and everything else, AND money, it’s better.

No shit, Sherlock.