17: Is Poverty Carefree?

     The seventeenth letter to Lucilius discusses another topic on which I have to agree to disagree with Seneca, at least in part. This letter begins with Seneca chiding his friend Lucilius about the latter's decision -- which he justifies by trepidation about poverty -- to continue in the family business and save money for the future rather than retire and devote himself to the study of philosophy. Seneca writes:
          "Trust me: you should make philosophy your advocate. It will persuade you not to linger over your balance sheet. No doubt your aim, the purpose of all your delay, is to ensure that you need not fear poverty. But what if poverty is actually something to pursue? Many have found riches an obstacle to the philosophical life: poverty is untrammeled, carefree. When the trumpet sounds, the poor know that they are not the ones under attack; when the alarm of fire is raised, they look around for the exit, not for their belongings. When a poor person is about to embark, there is no tumult at the harbor, no bustling throng along the beach, attendants all of a single person; no pack of slaves standing around ... . Hunger is cheap; it is the palate that is expensive. Poverty is content to satisfy the immediate wants. Why, then, do you refuse to take as your companion one whose habits it is sensible for the wealthy to imitate? If you want to have time for your mind, you must either be poor or resemble the poor. Study cannot be beneficial without some time for frugality, and frugality is just voluntary poverty. So away with your excuses!"
     I live about a mile away from one of the largest temporary homeless shelters in Chicago, and the residents there are among the least carefree people I have ever seen; rather, they appear to be suffering from chronic stress (among other maladies). Thus, I cannot agree with Seneca's argument that poverty is carefree. Seneca was born into a prosperous provincial family, and by the time he sat down to write the Letters late in his life, he was probably one of the wealthiest men in the Roman Empire; he seems, therefore, to have had no personal experience with poverty. However, in Seneca's defense, it must be noted that he attributed much of his success to good fortune.
     Like Seneca, President Trump was born into prosperous family; like Seneca, Trump went on to build substantial personal wealth (although we do not know exactly how rich he is, because he will not release his income tax returns). But unlike Seneca, Trump attributes his success to "genius" -- instead of admitting that (after being given a head start in life) he has also been very lucky in business, as well as in politics.
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     Seneca, Letters on Ethics to Lucilius, Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Margaret Graver and A.A. Long (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2015), Letter 17, 2-5, pages 64-65.