I’m penniless by choice.

I neither scorn nor crave wealth. When I think of being “wealthy” it always involves me being in a huge room with books piled to the ceiling.

The Amish believe in simple living, only as necessary to sustain your basic needs. Food, clothing. The hardcores do not have electricity, make their own clothes, grow their own food, and only have transportation to go to church, or bring their farmed goods to others. They probably would not “scorn” material wealth, but they don’t appear to crave it by choice.

Also any buddhist monk like Caine from the old Kung Fu TV show would have similar views. Not “scorning” wealth, but not craving it. Sandals, satchel, hat, shirt, pants and a place to walk is all he needed.

The desire for material wealth is affected by the environment we live in. If everybody was satisfied with living on a small piece of land and eating and sleeping to pass every day, then we would not have the desire for material wealth. Since the evolution of the world is inevitable, there are probably few people who would scorn material wealth in today’s world. But in a utopia, it is possible to live a life without desiring material wealth.

wow that is an interesting viewpoint. forget about the hundreds of Buddhists and Hindus, and even Christian ascetics over the centuries who have decided that wealth and material gain is not the end all be all to life, in fact it is exactly what hampers us from living a happy and fulfilled life. it is most certainly not engraved into our DNA. a desire to be secure perhaps, to have a roof over our heads, to have food to eat, but beyond that, no. the rest is greed. perhaps we are basically greedy, but it can certainly be combatted.