# Why did Mr. Money Mustache get Political today?

## By Mr. Money Mustache

## Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:52:06 +0000

Well, that was interesting. I posted an article about rich people and taxes today, and the comments section rapidly exploded to set a record for activity. I’m glad to hear people are interested in politics, but I actually didn’t intend that as a political posting.

So while the comments section of that article continues to get murkier and murkier like a toilet that never gets flushed, we’ll start again right now with a fresh white bowl that explains the simple point I was trying to make the first time.

I liked Mr. Buffett’s gesture because it represented a spirit of sacrificing your own immediate interests for that of your community/country/planet. The feeling that there is plenty to go around, and we should put our resources to work instead of hoarding them.

I wrote that even the middle class should be willing to do so, in the right situations, because that represents the spirit of thinking big, and being strong and open-minded and realizing we all have plenty of money to put to work as needed, rather than being small, whiny, and thinking the problems in your life are created by someone else.

The foundation of this whole deal, Mr. Money Mustache, is the fact that the middle-class people of America have great power, plenty of wealth, and lots of opportunity. Once we realize this, we can stop complaining about how hard life is and how corrupt this or that politician is, and get on with the business of getting Rich. As long as we’re busy complaining, we’re creating excuses why we cannot actually get it done.

I witnessed a silly conversation on Facebook yesterday, where one guy posted the Buffett article, and another guy made the point, “200k to 1M of income isn’t what it used to be. This is not rich”. Being a little bit fired up and not thinking clearly at that hour, I chimed in, “What!? That is a shitload of money! I have been retired for six years and I never even made close to that level of income! Even 60k is a damned healthy salary“.

Even after reading my point, this young man said this, “… $60k is a barely scraping by salary in Ottawa for a family. Just affording the mortgage on a $300K house requires more than that without over leveraging. Good luck getting a family sized house for that in Ottawa. If you lived in NYC, Boston, Vancouver, a $100K salary would get you squat (maybe a small 2 bedroom apt with a parking spot)….”

And that is EXACTLY the point I am trying to make. Facebook Guy will still be stuck working for many years, Mr. Money Mustache graduated long ago. Because of the attitude of “Appreciate what you have, and make it work for you, instead of complaining it is not enough.”

That’s all. No political commentary required.