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Q: What's the difference between being rich and being wealthy?
In my opinion, being wealthy means having enough resources to live life without having to worry about money. Being rich means you know you have a lot of money but do not know exactly how much you have. Is there a better explanation? Pray tell.
Wealth is institutionalized: It is passed down through families, who instill their offspring with enough common sense to keep hold of it for the next generation. Nowadays, China and the USA especially, have rigged the system so that wealth stays relatively safe despite idiotic ofspring. Conversely, starting poor and becoming wealthy is increasingly difficult the more the system favours the wealthy. It's called low social mobility: Untill I came to China, I thought the USA were the masters of wealth protectionism.
Being RICH, on the other hand, implies that you have had a recent financial windfall, but probably lack the wisdom to keep hold of it. Rappers are famous for haemorrhaging cash to patch the emptiness they feel from their troubled egos. Chinese facesaving offers a whole new method to pressure the rich into spending rather than saving. But inflation in China is so high, perhaps it's not unwise to enjoy what they have while it lasts.
Lot's of good answers in this thread
http://answers.echinacities.com/question/what-diffrence-between-wealthy-...
OK， I've gone and looked at the thread Scan recommended. I noticed that there are differing views. I was thinking perhaps rich is used to describe a person, as in "He is a rich man." We can say "He is a wealthy man" but somehow it doesn't sound right. Describing a country as wealthy sounds right. I suppose it's not as straight forward as describing the difference between poor and broke. Broke is temporary while poor is eternal.
considering the fact that I am a rich man... i hope this feeling of "brokeness" subsides quickly!
wealthy is being able to live on your investments and not have to work for the rest of your life and the next 2 generations.
rich is being able to live on your investments and continue working and hope your next generation does not waste all your hard earned money and can make their offspring reach 'wealthy".
when I was a kid in the US,, wealthy was definitely the next big step-up from rich. it was never directly stated,,, but it was kinda understood that the wealthy had had their wealth for a comparatively long time, whereas a rich person could've been (and probably was) just a working Joe sometime in his/her life.
