Further Conversations in the Pavillion of Considerations
A: ... then we come to ponder the question that has puzzled almost everyone through the ages.
B: What is the nature of God?
A: No. What is the nature of money?
B: Money?
A: Yes. How we earn and spend it. Whether the total amount of money stays the same or changes with time. How money can seemingly be created from nothing, and how it balances out in the end. Whether the concept of value is real, or just an arbitrary parameter.
B: Oh money is simple. Money is deferred happiness.
A: Money has a life of its own. The same cannot be said of mere deferred happines.
B: Oh yes it can. Consider the emotions that the deferral of happiness can arouse -- sadness, hope, expectation. Consider what it can accomplish -- sacrifice, investment, prudence, planning ahead. Consider what evil it can do when people decide to seek their gratification now instead of later. And resentment, too; that feeling drives more of human affairs than you might think, and can be caused by the delaying of gratification.
A: You're just saying in a roundabout way that human nature is a complicated thing.
B: Well, humans invented money.
B: What is the nature of God?
A: No. What is the nature of money?
B: Money?
A: Yes. How we earn and spend it. Whether the total amount of money stays the same or changes with time. How money can seemingly be created from nothing, and how it balances out in the end. Whether the concept of value is real, or just an arbitrary parameter.
B: Oh money is simple. Money is deferred happiness.
A: Money has a life of its own. The same cannot be said of mere deferred happines.
B: Oh yes it can. Consider the emotions that the deferral of happiness can arouse -- sadness, hope, expectation. Consider what it can accomplish -- sacrifice, investment, prudence, planning ahead. Consider what evil it can do when people decide to seek their gratification now instead of later. And resentment, too; that feeling drives more of human affairs than you might think, and can be caused by the delaying of gratification.
A: You're just saying in a roundabout way that human nature is a complicated thing.
B: Well, humans invented money.