Jake Trustin

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What is the Opposite of Poverty?

What is the Opposite of Poverty?

While backpacking through Scotland I met an old man who used to be a blacksmith. We were heading in the same direction so we walked a good portion of the city together. When I told him about my trip and that I was an artist, he told me that he used to study philosophy and had a professor ask him a simple question: 

The question: “What is the opposite of poverty?”

In my head I was thinking: wealth. Wealth is the opposite of poverty.

He continued: “Art is the opposite of poverty. It’s the opposite of poverty because it can enrich anyone. It’s creative. It fills your soul and gives hope to even the poorest of people.”

“Poverty is destructive. It’s a hopeless state of mind. Art can lift ya out of your sh*t.”