With wealth comes choice, and with choice comes opportunity; the basis of the American dream. Wealth buys opportunity from the very start. An infant born into a wealthy family begins its life a league ahead of its poverty stricken counterpart. This is not so much because of the proximity of money, but because of what that money can do. Having ample funds allows the infants parents the freedom to spend more time with the child and it also makes the entrance of the baby much less traumatic for the family. The other family however will face a much

Freedom and liberty cannot exist without choice and therefore, options to choose from. The most direct effect of wealth is the ability to have more choice in what, where, and how much is purchased, and this indirectly affects almost every other aspect of life. By definition a poor family cannot afford many of the things which a large part of society takes for granted. While poor family is relatively free to move about, they probably cannot afford city to city moves and vacation trips are out of the question. Even mobility within the local area is somewhat restricted as many police and wealthier families harbor innate prejudices against the poor because they associate poverty with crime, and as such the poor must tread carefully when they are not on familiar ground. The freedom of choice in shopping is also restricted for these people as they once again cannot afford to shop anywhere and are confined to thrift shops and discount grocery stores. The loss of the ability to shop anywhere, move anywhere, and even walk freely in a town represents a grave loss of freedoms for these people. Finally, the poor are not even free to live comfortable lives, as most are merely a paycheck away from the street. They cannot coast for even a moment or let down their guard for it only takes a small push to send someone in the delicate balance of poverty spiraling further into the depths of misfortune.

Wealth in itself is just money; paper that literally isn't even worth the material it is printed on. But the advantages of wealth still cannot be refuted. At every stage of life and at every step on the socio-economic ladder wealth means choice and choice means freedom. This is the very epitome of wealth and whether they know or not this is the reason that everyone strives for greater economic gains. Deep down almost every person in America realizes that in order to accomplish their dreams they need the cold cash to buy the opportunities.

In sharp contrast to this the wealthy are blessed enough to have such horrible situations plague them only in nightmares. For many wealthy families the question of freedom never crosses their minds as they take most of it for granted. Beyond the basic ability to shop and buy what they want, the wealthy can travel freely and have choice in career and education as well as many more intangible freedoms. Members of society that have enough money can do whatever they want with their lives. While a poor man is forced to slave away at work for long hours a wealthy man can not only take time of, but if he has enough money he can choose not to work at all and coast instead. Essentially this man is buying back his free time. He can also go further by hiring men to do every little task from changing light bulbs to mowing the lawn. Although this is a definite extreme case, it is still far from unfeasible. Sickly enough, a man could also choose the other extreme and give away his entire fortune to charity and thereby choose to live the life of a poor man. Of course the

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Approximate Word count = 2033
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)