Michael Milken was the junk bond king. He realized if you invest in a stock worth a penny, if the value goes up by a penny, you double your money. These investments are now called "high yield," nonpejoratively, and are now a popular venue for investors. Some compared Milken to Mother Teresa, and said Milken helped more people, by making it possible for many people to retire early with their investments.
Milken's investing and Mother Teresa's ministry are metaphorically similar. Milken focused a low-value stocks, and Mother Teresa helped the downtrodden of society.
We tend to favor the wealthy and successful, believing if we help them out, we will become like them. This has resulted in the tacit approval of the current system of redistribution from the poor to the rich. The rich are not grateful, but ask for more. It's hard for a rich man to be spiritual, because he can pay for relief for his suffering, rather that resorting to prayer to ease his troubled heart.
It's easy to love your home team when they are winners. Look at the Saints and the Cubs, maybe also the Raptors. For years their faithful fans rooted them on while they were in the basement of the standings. If they were won a game in the regular season, it was cause for much rejoicing. Jesus talked about the one little lamb that was lost. It is easy to love the beautiful and successful. It takes a lot of faith to love the less fortunate.
It is better to love the wretched than the brilliant. In economics, this means to be risk prone instead of risk averse. You can be risk prone in some aspects of life and risk averse in others. But to feel really alive it's necessary to take some risks.
