root of all evil
If a man runs after money, he's money-mad; if he keeps it, he's a capitalist; if he spends it, he's a playboy; if he doesn't get it, he's a ne'er-do-well; if he doesn't try to get it, he lacks ambition. If he gets it without working for it, he's a parasite; and if he accumulates it after a lifetime of hard work, people call him a fool who never got anything out of life.
- Vic Oliver -
You can always tell the people who say: "Money can't buy happiness." They're the ones who usually have had little experience with either.
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I was thumbing through a book published in the 60's entitled "Anecdotes For All Occasions", and the above caught my attention. Money is a queer human creation. Whatever happened to the barter system? I give you three goats, a pig, and a bushel of wheat, and I get years of cheap labor as well as your daughter - it's a win/win situation without the complications of exchange rates. Situations are only further complicated when money is introduced. Money really is the root of all evil, but in our society it's a necessary evil. Without the prospect of cash, there would be no incentive for anything - no incentive for self-improvement. Sadly, it is the potential for personal wealth that is the lure for would-be doctors, scientists, and those who have professions that can potentially benefit mankind. That mindset is, in my opinion, one of the reasons socialist and communist societies can and will always implode. A corrupt and overly powerful government isn't the only folly of such an economic subsistence, so too is a populace without motivation for self-improvement or a drive to pursue greatness. Who would undergo the rigorous schooling to become a physician when they could make the same money riding the morning route on the back of the garbage truck? Whoever first came up with the concept of currency instead of the exchange of goods and services is both a genius and a fool. I hate waxing philosophical, but I find it hard to ignore the fact that we have millions upon millions of people basing their entire lives on a never-ending quest for meaningless slips of paper and metal - more often than not just numbers on some computer in Bankland. There's much more to life than material wealth. Experience life - for better, for worse. I guarantee you'll be happier many years from now, as the world around erupts into a mushroom shaped harbinger of doom, drawing your last breaths in the arms of someone you love and cherish than with a few numbers with a lot of zeroes next to your name in some computer on Wall St.; money won't share you hopes, dreams, fears, regrets, desires and needs - money won't love you back.
- Vic Oliver -
You can always tell the people who say: "Money can't buy happiness." They're the ones who usually have had little experience with either.
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I was thumbing through a book published in the 60's entitled "Anecdotes For All Occasions", and the above caught my attention. Money is a queer human creation. Whatever happened to the barter system? I give you three goats, a pig, and a bushel of wheat, and I get years of cheap labor as well as your daughter - it's a win/win situation without the complications of exchange rates. Situations are only further complicated when money is introduced. Money really is the root of all evil, but in our society it's a necessary evil. Without the prospect of cash, there would be no incentive for anything - no incentive for self-improvement. Sadly, it is the potential for personal wealth that is the lure for would-be doctors, scientists, and those who have professions that can potentially benefit mankind. That mindset is, in my opinion, one of the reasons socialist and communist societies can and will always implode. A corrupt and overly powerful government isn't the only folly of such an economic subsistence, so too is a populace without motivation for self-improvement or a drive to pursue greatness. Who would undergo the rigorous schooling to become a physician when they could make the same money riding the morning route on the back of the garbage truck? Whoever first came up with the concept of currency instead of the exchange of goods and services is both a genius and a fool. I hate waxing philosophical, but I find it hard to ignore the fact that we have millions upon millions of people basing their entire lives on a never-ending quest for meaningless slips of paper and metal - more often than not just numbers on some computer in Bankland. There's much more to life than material wealth. Experience life - for better, for worse. I guarantee you'll be happier many years from now, as the world around erupts into a mushroom shaped harbinger of doom, drawing your last breaths in the arms of someone you love and cherish than with a few numbers with a lot of zeroes next to your name in some computer on Wall St.; money won't share you hopes, dreams, fears, regrets, desires and needs - money won't love you back.