Would you rather be rich and unfeeling or poor and compassionate?

[Worthless loser]

I would rather be rich and unfeeling. I am the type of person who has compassion and empathy for people, but I really just see it as a liability at best and a weakness at worst. Caring and having compassion and empathy for others provides no benefit to the self. What's more, it serves as a roadblock to significant success, as callousness and treachery is often a prerequisite to reach the top, and it is a chink in the armor that people can take advantage of - if you are compassionate and have empathy, other people can use that to their advantage to hurt you and keep you down.

Conversely, people who are unfeeling are not plagued by all the worries and insecurities that having a conscience provides, and they are so smug and narcissistic that it seems like they spend their lives in a state of high self esteem and self satisfaction. It really seems like a dream like to me, a chronic underachiever with lifelong self esteem problems.

 

[faust]

Being rich is not a bad thing itself. You can do some charity stuff and help those who need it.
However, being poor is not the end too. Like you can travel around the world for free (hitchhiking, coachsurfing, whatever), meet new people and help others, not financially ofc.
I think money is overestimated thing and at the same time underestimated. Money would not let me stay longer on planet Earth, but I could help others, e.g. get out of the street or donate money for innovative projects. Destroy consumerism - and money is automatically not a bad thing.
Edit: I'd rather be rich than poor. But in this context would rather be poor and compassionate.

 

[alexK]

Compassion is healthy, valuable, humane and all but being rich would solve a lot of my problems so I'd give up compassion. Rich all the way!

 

[Mr2005]

Rich and compassionate :)

 

[Soulless_Angel]

If I could keep compassion for my family, and screw the rest of the world then I would take that with being rich, but other wise neither as they are sound appealing!

 

[Skelebirb]

Are we allowed to pick financially secure with a reasonable amount of compassion but firm boundaries to avoid being taken advantage of? 'Cuz on the one hand, I don't want to be poor and exploited, but on the other, being rich and unburdened by compassion/empathy won't get my head outta the guillotine when the peasants revolt...

 

[Epsilon0]

Question: Would you rather be...
Answer: No. I would rather not be.

 

[terry_a_davis]

OP empathy is a good thing for yourself and as well as others, it leads to helping behavior, which benefits social relationships. Things that aid in our relationships with other people benefits us as well. When people experience empathy, they are more likely to engage in prosocial behaviours that benefit other people. Things such as altruism are also connected to feeling empathy for others. I have empathy for people, children and animals especially, anything negative to do with them really gets to me.

To answer your question, if i could rewind time i would rather be poor and compassionate. I've experienced life with quite a lot of money (not rich, but I spent as much as wanted whenever i felt like it) and being selfish (which is sort of unfeeling) and i wrecked my life during this time, lost the love of my life. If i'd been poor and compassionate (i'm more compassionate nowadays but it's too late) i think things would have been different.

 

[Whitewash11235814]

What does unfeeling imply? Does it mean you'll hurt people or just have no empathy? There's a fine distinction between the two. There are psychopaths and sociopaths who go unnoticed because they can fake empathy. It doesn't mean they cause perpetual emotional or physical harm. If that's the case, rich and unfeeling all the way...

 

[Worthless loser]

What does unfeeling imply? Does it mean you'll hurt people or just have no empathy? There's a fine distinction between the two. There are psychopaths and sociopaths who go unnoticed because they can fake empathy. It doesn't mean they cause perpetual emotional or physical harm. If that's the case, rich and unfeeling all the way...

I suppose in my head it means not being bothered by conscience, because I think that comes with a whole host of advantages I wish I had, and not being introspective or self aware, because that seems to be the root cause of my weaknesses.

 

[Lijden]

I already feel unfeeling 24/7, so being rich on top of that would be nice.

 

[TheOA]

I already feel unfeeling 24/7, so being rich on top of that would be nice.

This.

 

[UninformedLover]

Yeah compassion is not paying my bills so I'm going to have to go with Rich and unfeeling.