I Will Teach You To Have Rich Parents
It goes without saying that the Internet is a busy marketplace buzzing with dubious claims and get-rich-quick schemes. One of the most powerful ways to draw traffic that web-savvy readers will inherently gravitate towards is the "how-to" site: how-to get thinner, how-to become organized, how-to become pregnant -- the list goes on and on. There is no shortage of cheerfully opportunistic sites willing to over-promise and under-deliver on their claims of self-improvement.Add to this list: I Will Teach You To Be Rich. What began as Stamford grad Ramit Sethi's blog dedicated to advice on photo processing has transformed itself into a site with ostensibly helpful advice on personal finance geared towards a younger, college bound audience. However, there are a couple things we find alarming about the site:
1. Being rich isn't something you can be taught. Face it, you're either rich or you're not, but "becoming rich" is a fairy tale best left to old-fashioned Horatio Alger stories. The 2007 Geldner Report backs these findings up with raw data (PDF) -- a full 97% of the upper-class wealthy are wealthy due to inheritance, not quote-unquote "hard work." Sethi should do his research before he starts inflating the hopes of Americans that don't know any better.
2. Ramit Sethi isn't rich himself. Last time I checked, you had to be something to be qualified to teach someone else how to be it as well. If I started a website entitled "I Will Teach You How To Be A Championship Archer" but I couldn't hit the bullseye myself, how seriously could I expect to be taken? Sethi should wait a few years before handing out such lofty promises of wealth and success. Also, I think we'd all be more comfortable hearing those kind of claims from someone out of Harvard Business School -- or at the very least, Yale.
3. Not everyone can be rich, and some people are simply better off being poor. I was reminded of this last time I was at the country club: as he was bringing me my scotch, the clubhouse boy Stanley asked me, "Mr. Wentworth, how can I travel down the road of success like you have?" Normally, I don't respond to such inquiries from the help, but this query was so naive that I had to laugh. "Stanley," I said, "you have as much a chance of attaining the wealth and success I enjoy as a caterpillar has of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro." With this, I slipped a $20 bill into his hand, and he was glad to have it. Doubtless that money ended up in some reefer-dealers' pocket later that evening, but for one brief, shining moment, Stanley honestly believed my success could be his.
So get real, Sethi: show some dignity and close down your blog before someone gets their head filled with false hope.
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