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If everything is relative to your position—intelligence, consent, perception—then what about things we consider objective? Wealth, for example? Or beauty?

Let's test the principle of relativity:

Who is richer – a homeless person with no debt and pennies in his pocket or a middle-class person with $50,000 in debt?

Objectively, a homeless person's net worth is higher. One cent is more than minus fifty thousand. On paper, he's "richer."

But we don't think that way, do we? Because we don't measure wealth objectively. We measure it relative to social status, access to resources, quality of life, and security. A middle-class person has debt, sure, but they also have a home, food, access to healthcare, and job prospects. A homeless person has a penny and nowhere to sleep tonight.

So when we say someone is "rich" or "poor," we're not really talking about numbers. We're talking about how their situation compares to our basic understanding of what's normal.

If you grew up poor, an income of $50,000 a year feels like wealth. If you grew up in luxury, that same $50,000 is a failure. It's the same number, but the feelings are polar opposites, and it all depends on where YOU started.

Wealth is relative. It always has been and always will be.